SOUTHERN  BRANCH, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

-S  *  Mrs  EL  ES,  CALIF. 


NATIONALIZING  AMERICA 


BY  EDWARD  A.  STEINER 

THE  CONFESSION  OF  A  HYPHENATED 
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Nationalizing 


By 
EDWARD  A.  STETNER 

Author  of  "  Introducing  in.   American  Spirit,1' 
"The  Immigrant  Tide" 


New  York   Chicago   Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Re  veil  Company 

London         and         Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh; .,  iqq  Ppnces, 


E 


THIS   BOOK   IS   DEDICATED 
TO  TWO   NOBLE  AMERICAN   WOMEN 

anfc 


THOUGH   DEATH   HAS   SEPARATED   THEM 

THEY  ARE  ALWAYS   TOGETHER 

IN    THE    HEARTS   OF 

THEIR  FRIENDS 


PREFACE 

THE  battle-axe  of  the  Great  War  has 
gashed  the  tree  of  life  of  all  the 
nations,  and  although  time  may 
heal  the  wound,  the  scar  will  never  be  ob- 
literated ;  for  the  hurt  has  penetrated  to  the 
very  pith  of  our  own  national  life. 

We  have  been  shaken  out  of  our  smug 
complacency,  and  our  superficialities,  be- 
gotten in  times  of  peaceful  ease.  Without 
having  had  a  direct  share  in  the  nations' 
quarrel,  or  paid  the  cost  of  it,  we  have 
passed  through  an  epoch  almost  as  sig- 
nificant as  if  we  had  used  the  munitions  we 
have  made,  and  our  sons  and  brothers  had 
been  the  slayers  or  the  slain. 

While  these  awful  years  belong  to  history 
and  can  never  be  forgotten,  they  are  not  as 
yet  history.  Even  if  their  chapters  were 
clear  enough  for  the  reading,  we  cannot  be 
certain  what  we  should  learn,  or  if  learning, 
we  would  heed. 

The  straight  upward  line  which  marked 
7 


Preface 

humanity's  progress  has  sagged  and  reached 
so  low  a  level  that  we  have  lost  faith  in  hu- 
manity's ability  to  learn  from  the  past. 
Whether  or  not  we  are  free  moral  agents, 
and  rational,  has  also  been  doubted. 

We  have  thought  much,  but  we  have  felt 
more ;  we  have  been  swayed  hither  and 
thither  by  the  fortunes  of  war,  by  sympathies 
and  antipathies ;  but  to  arrive  at  any  definite, 
abiding  conclusions  has  been  all  but  im- 
possible. 

The  emotional  strain  upon  those  who,  like 
myself,  were  born  in  one  of  the  countries 
involved  in  the  war  is  indescribable,  and  our 
confused  questioning  or  questionable  attitude 
is  not  easily  understood.  In  spite  of  my  daily 
anxiety  for  close  kindred  in  the  trenches,  and 
of  my  deep  sympathy  going  out  to  those  who 
have  offered  up  their  sons  to  the  Fatherland, 
my  life  is  so  centered  here  in  the  United 
States  that  my  hopes  and  fears  are  only  for 
her.  I  have  spoken  about  it  often,  but  I  had 
neither  the  poise  nor  the  courage  to  write. 

This  summer,  at  the  request  of  the  man- 
agement of  the  Chautauqua  Institution,  I  de- 


Preface  9 

livered  six  lectures  during  a  week  given  over 
to  the  consideration  of  "Americanization." 
These  lectures  were  most  cordially  received, 
and  I  have  embodied  them,  with  other  chap- 
ters, in  this  book.  They  were  all  written 
to  be  spoken,  or  rather,  I  wrote  as  I  would 
wish  to  speak  to  an  American  audience. 

To  that  may  be  due  not  only  certain 
rhetorical  qualities  which  the  reader  will  de- 
tect ;  but  also  the  ever-present  ego,  which 
cannot  be  easily  eliminated  from  a  lecture. 

The  writing  of  this  book  has  served  the 
purpose  of  re-testing  for  me  the  experiences 
through  which  I  passed  in  the  process  of 
Americanization ;  for  I  am  both  an  immi- 
grant and  an  American,  and  I  am  glad  of 
this  opportunity  to  affirm  my  faith  in 
America.  I  shall  be  profoundly  grateful  if 
it  tends  towards  helping  to  establish  the 
security  of  this  nation  and  the  perpetuating 
of  her  institutions  which  in  the  past  have  so 
vitally  affected  humanity,  and  which  will 
surely  be  needed  in  the  coming  days. 

E.  A.  S. 

Grinnell,  Iowa. 


CONTENTS 

I.  THE  NATION'S  PULSE      .        .  1 1 

II.  NATIONALISM          ....      34 

III.  THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE    .        .61 

IV.  LANGUAGE  AND  THE  NATION   .        .      89 

V.  THE  STOMACH  LINE       .        .        .116 

VI.  HISTORY  AND  THE  NATION      .        .142 

VII.  THE  SCHOOLS  AND  THE  NATION       .     163 

VIII.  THE  CHURCHES  AND  THE  NATION     .     189 

IX.  NATIONALITY  AND  THE  IMMIGRANT  .     210 

X.  A  WORD  TO  THE  UNWISE       .        .229 


10 


I 

The  Nation's  Pulse 

LIFE  in  the  United  States  of  America 
once  seemed  blessedly  peaceful  to 
one  who,  like  myself,  had  lived  in 
the  current  of  national  rivalries,  in  a  country 
where  one's  allegiance  to  a  dynasty,  a  par- 
ticular religious  faith,  or  national  group,  was 
constantly  challenged.  The  American  Eagle 
soaring  alone  over  so  vast  a  territory,  its 
supremacy  unchallenged  for  decades,  so 
tamed  and  domesticated  that  some  one  has 
called  it  the  "  American  hen,"  presented  a 
striking  contrast  to  the  double  eagle  embla- 
zoned upon  the  banner  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Monarchy.  Each  half  of  that  dual 
eagle  was  hatched  from  a  different  egg,  each 
eaglet  lived  in  a  separate  nest,  and  although 
brought  together  by  the  fortunes  of  the  Haps- 
burg  dynasty,  they  never  lived  in  peace. 

The  internal  condition  of  this  dual  mon- 
ii 


12  Nationalizing  America 

archy  was  fitly  described  some  time  ago 
at  a  high-school  commencement,  when  the 
president  of  the  board  was  asked  to  say  a 
few  words,  after  the  graduating  class  had 
suffered  the  usual  admonitions,  and  was 
eagerly  awaiting  its  release.  He  quoted 
Shakespeare  and  the  Bible,  he  spoke  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  and  after 
wrapping  the  class  in  the  Stars  and  Stripes, 
metaphorically  speaking,  he  said  in  an  emo- 
tional climax,  as  the  tears  rolled  down  his 
cheeks :  "  My  feet  are  upon  the  sacred  soil  of 
Missouri,  my  head  touches  Heaven,  but  in- 
wardly I  am  full  of  pain." 

This  inward  pain  of  my  native  country, 
which  has  become  chronic,  was  caused  by 
national,  racial  and  religious  differences ; 
points  of  conflict  which  we  are  now  begin- 
ning to  understand.  The  language  struggle 
is  not  so  plain  to  us,  because  we,  fortunately, 
are  a  people  of  one  speech  and  have  thus  far 
been  able  to  impose  it  upon  all  those  who 
have  sought  asylum  among  us.  The  Amer- 
ican people  have  thus  escaped  much  internal 


The  Nation's  Pulse  1 3 

strife,  and  have  more  readily  assimilated  the 
foreigner ;  but  we  have  missed  the  rich  lin- 
guistic heritage,  which  was  mine,  born  as  I 
was  with  four  languages. 

I  am  free  to  confess  that  I  never  liked  the 
story  of  the  building  of  the  Tower  of  Babel ; 
not  alone  because  I  had  to  study  four  dif- 
ferent grammars,  when  I  had  no  talent  even 
for  one,  but  because  I  felt  that  it  was  to 
blame  for  all  the  agonies  of  a  political  strug- 
gle with  its  dire  consequences  to  millions  of 
men.  Moral  and  industrial  progress  and  the 
health  of  a  people  were  deliberately  retarded, 
even  sacrificed,  and  for  years  legislation  was 
made  impossible,  because  too  many  lan- 
guages were  spoken  in  one  country,  and  each 
group  insisted  upon  the  dominance  of  its 
own. 

Mark  Twain  is  said  to  have  seen  the  man 
who  was  supposed  to  have  spoken  seven 
days  in  Bohemian,  to  hinder  legislation  in 
German.  That  was  somewhat  of  an  exag- 
geration. Forty-eight  hours  in  succession  is 
the  official  record  and  the  man  died  soon 
after  his  effort. 


14  Nationalizing  America 

I  did  not  escape  the  turmoil  when  soon 
after  I  went  to  Germany  and  later  into  Rus- 
sia. The  Particularistic  struggle  was  near- 
ing  a  close  although  it  was  not  yet  ended. 
Hanover  had  not  forgotten  its  unique  place 
in  Europe.  Bavaria  and  the  other  Southern 
German  States  did  not  like  the  Prussians 
then,  any  more  than  we  profess  to  love  them 
now. 

Alsace  and  Lorraine  still  leaned  towards 
France,  from  whose  bosom  they  were  torn 
while  loving  that  amorous  suitor  more  than 
the  parent  who  by  force  had  recovered  them. 
In  Eastern  Prussia  the  Panslavistic  propa- 
ganda was  making  itself  felt,  and  all  over  the 
Empire,  the  Socialists  were  at  the  height  of 
their  struggle  for  the  Millennium  and  against 
Militarism  and  Monarchy ;  while  Bismarck 
had  not  as  yet  learned  to  fight  Socialism 
with  social  reforms. 

The  Catholic  Party  was  becoming  a  force 
to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  Reichstag,  gain* 
ing  power  in  parliamentary  skill  and  influ- 
ence. All  these  struggles  gave  color  to  Uni- 
versity  life,  the  color  frequently  being  red  ; 


The  Nation's  Pulse  1 5 

and  many  of  the  duels  were  caused  by  some- 
thing more  than  the  overheated  blood  of 
youths  who  had  imbibed  too  freely  from  their 
beer  mugs. 

In  Russia  the  Finns  and  Poles  were  vainly 
struggling  against  a  ruthless  national  policy, 
and  the  Nihilists  were  making  the  last  ef- 
fort against  Autocracy,  spreading  discontent 
everywhere,  but  affecting  Russia  the  least. 
Out  of  this  disturbed  atmosphere,  out  of  this 
call  for  shibboleths,  I  came  to  the  United 
States. 

The  most  striking  thing  to  me  when  I 
landed  was  the  absence  of  uniforms,  and 
the  monotonous  yet  significant  uniformity ; 
I  had  never  seen  a  state  in  civilian  garb. 
Rank  clearly  marked,  force  definitely  accen- 
tuated, colorful  distinctions,  soldiers,  swords 
and  guns  seemed  to  me  then  as  essential  as 
ozone  to  the  air.  It  was  a  relief  to  see  the 
Chinese  who,  at  that  time,  still  wore  their 
full  Oriental  regalia  and  knew  not  the  joys 
of  a  haircut ;  they  at  least  were  different. 

When  I  began  to  look  beneath  the  surface, 
I  found  the  same  monotony  or  placidity  in 


1 6  Nationalizing  America 

the  national  life.  The  rift  made  by  the  Civil 
War  was  all  but  healed.  The  "  bloody  shirt  " 
still  waved,  though  faintly,  without  venom,  and 
soon  it  disappeared  from  the  political  prop- 
erty room.  The  flamboyant  orator  still  cast 
his  spell  over  his  audiences,  but  the  applause 
he  reaped  for  his  effort  was  faint,  and  his 
hearers  ceased  to  believe  that  this  was  the 
greatest  country  in  the  world  and  that  we 
could  "  lick  the  whole  creation."  His  boast- 
ings of  our  wealth  were  vain  in  the  presence 
of  so  much  unrelieved  poverty  and  distress, 
and  our  bigness  became  insignificant  when 
we  saw  little  Japan  defeating  a  giant  greater 
than  ourselves.  I  attended  political  rallies, 
but  beneath  the  noise  and  the  tumult  arti- 
ficially created,  I  found  them  doleful  and  dull. 

I  listened  to  a  presidential  candidate  who 
spoke  nearly  two  hours  upon  the  momentous 
question  of  the  price  of  a  suit  of  clothes  as 
affected  by  the  tariff,  a  subject  about  which 
no  great  enthusiasm  can  be  created. 

Becoming  a  Democrat,  because  of  the  ap- 
peal of  the  name,  I  soon  discovered  that 
Democrats  are  not  necessarily  democratic, 


The  Nation's  Pulse  17 

and  Republicans  not  always  aristocrats  ;  my 
allegiance  wavered,  and  I  have  since  voted 
for  men  upon  every  ticket  including  the  So- 
cialist, without  endangering  my  peace,  or  my 
place.  Never  very  much  excited  by  political 
issues  which  I  did  not  and  could  not  under- 
stand although  I  honestly  tried,  I  was  as 
seriously  grieved  when  I  missed  voting  be- 
cause of  absence  from  home,  as  when  I  missed 
going  to  prayer-meeting. 

The  Spanish-American  war  (if  it  may  be 
called  a  war)  set  the  banners  waving  furiously, 
and  the  national  pulse  beating  faster,  yet 
never  feverishly.  The  trappings  of  war,  fa- 
miliar to  me,  lacked  pomp  and  circumstance. 
The  boys  in  drab  looked  decidedly  "  green," 
and  the  army  I  saw  looked  more  like  a  mob, 
or  perhaps  a  lot  of  boys  bent  upon  a  good 
time. 

The  Germans  accused  us  of  having  fo- 
mented the  Cuban  revolution,  as  they  still 
accuse  us  of  having  a  hand  in  all  revolutions 
on  this  continent.  Going  abroad  that  year  I 
loudly  proclaimed  our  economic  disinterested- 
ness and  our  high  idealism.  I  never  appeared 


1 8  Nationalizing  America 

without  an  American  flag  pinned  conspicu- 
ously upon  my  coat,  and  I  outjingoed  every 
native  jingo  I  knew. 

In  an  interview  with  the  editor  of  the 
Berliner  Tageblatt,  I  tried  to  convert  him  to 
my  view  of  the  causes  of  the  trouble.  He  was 
as  gracious  as  the  editor  of  a  great  daily  can 
be,  especially  in  Germany  where  every  one 
in  authority  takes  on  an  imperial  manner,  and 
he  waved  aside  my  protestation  by  saying : 
"  There  are  always  two  causes  for  every  war ; 
one  of  which  the  diplomats  know,  and  the 
other  that  which  they  make  the  people  be- 
lieve. Your  attitude,  laudable  as  it  is,  proves 
that  you  have  a  powerful  press  and  powerful 
interests  behind  it." 

It  is  just  possible  that  the  historian  who  is 
never  quite  happy  till  he  has  discovered  the 
bread  and  butter  cause  of  history  will  prove 
that  it  was  the  sugar  on  top  of  the  bread  and 
butter,  and  not  "  Cuba  Libre"  which  caused 
the  Spanish-American  war.  If  that  is  so,  it 
may  also  prove  that  the  " Herr  Editor"  was 
right  and  that  I,  in  common  with  some  sixty 
millions  of  other  people,  was  deceived. 


The  Nation's  Pulse  19 

The  Old  Testament  which  is  as  frank  a  bit 
of  history  as  we  possess,  though  it  may  leave 
the  higher  critic  room  for  his  contentions, 
leads  the  Hebrew  tribes  against  the  Canaan- 
ites,  because  they  wanted  the  land  "  flowing 
with  milk  and  honey."  The  Ten  Command- 
ments are  only  an  incident.  The  three-thou- 
sand-year later,  modern  man  fights  for  the 
ten  commandments  or  some  high  ideal,  else 
he  could  not  be  made  to  fight ;  and  some 
one  else  gets  the  milk  and  honey. 

I  adored  the  heroes  of  that  Spanish- Ameri- 
can conflict.  I  contributed  my  mite  to  the 
Dewey  house  presented  to  the  Admiral  by  a 
grateful  nation.  I  celebrated  Dewey  Day 
twice,  I  think,  and  now  it  has  dropped  out  of 
my  calendar  so  completely  that  I  do  not  even 
remember  the  date.  I  joined  the  chorus  of 
praise  to  Lieutenant  Hobson,  and  when  he 
kissed  the  young  ladies  who  came  to  crown 
their  hero,  I  saw  his  halo  no  less  bright ; 
although  an  ungrateful  Republic  has  all  but 
forgotten  his  sublime  courage  during  the  war 
and  after  it. 

I  felt  shame  over  the  squabble  among  our 


2o  Nationalizing  America 

admirals  as  to  who  was  to  blame  for  our 
naval  victory,  and  remember  with  pride  only 
one  incident;  when  Admiral  Philips  rebuked 
his  cheering  marines :  "  Don't  cheer,  boys,  the 
poor  fellows  are  dying."  That  seemed  to  me 
sublimely  American. 

We  annexed  Hawaii  and  Porto  Rico  and 
carried  the  Star  Spangled  Banner  to  the 
edge  of  Asia.  We  occupied  the  Philippine 
Islands,  and  are  as  happy  in  their  possession 
as  the  little  boy  who  has  captured  a  pinch- 
ing bug,  and  does  not  quite  know  whether  it 
is  more  dangerous  to  keep  it  or  to  let  it  go. 

In  common  with  many  Americans  I  was 
carried  out  of  the  political  doldrums  into 
which  I  had  drifted,  by  that  picturesque  and 
elemental  personality,  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
His  appeal  to  me  did  not  have  to  wait  for  his 
much  disputed  exploits  on  the  heights  of 
Santiago.  I  had  felt  him  while  he  was  Police 
Commissioner  of  the  City  of  New  York  ;  had 
seen  him  through  the  eyes  of  my  dear  friend, 
Jacob  Riis,  and  to  see  him  through  his  eyes 
was  to  see  him  in  magnificent,  if  not  magni- 
fied, proportions.  Let  me  here  confess  that 


The  Nation's  Pulse  21 

I  did  not  lift  my  voice  in  his  behalf  when,  in 
these  later  troubled  days,  he  offered  himself 
so  self-effacingly  to  the  Republican  party  as 
a  candidate  for  the  presidency.  I  cannot  be- 
lieve, however,  that  it  was  lack  of  my  support 
which  lost  him  the  nomination. 

The  nation  has  felt  the  impress  of  his  per- 
sonality, and  the  inward  look  which  finally  de- 
generated into  mere  muckraking  was  not  the 
least  of  its  results.  That  the  magazines  which 
exploited  the  shame  of  our  cities  suddenly 
turned  instead,  to  the  exploitation  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Vernon  Castle  and  the  newly  awakened 
national  passion  for  dancing,  may  be  due 
either  to  the  fact  that  the  public  grew  tired  of 
it  or  that  it  made  the  advertisers  tired.  The 
managing  editors  alone  could  tell  us,  and 
they  have  not  taken  the  public  into  their  con- 
fidence. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  as  once  we  exag- 
gerated our  virtues  we  then  exaggerated  our 
faults,  but  we  needed  the  inward  look;  and 
the  muckrakers  have  helped  us  to  it.  As  a 
nation  we  were  living  quite  unconscious  of 
nationality,  and  that  may  have  been  as 


22  Nationalizing  America 

wholesome  as  being  unconscious  of  one's 
stomach  or  one's  soul.  Most  of  us  were 
struggling  honestly  for  our  daily  bread,  eat- 
ing it  by  the  sweat  of  our  brow,  while  the 
shrewder  ones  ate  it  by  the  sweat  of  the  hire- 
ling's brow. 

We  drove  the  desert  from  the  West  but 
what  was  left  of  cactus  and  sage-brush  Luther 
Burbank  tried  to  civilize  for  the  use  of  man 
and  beast.  We  dug  a  ditch  across  the  Isth- 
mus without  involving  ourselves  in  a  na- 
tional scandal ;  nature,  jealous  of  our  quick 
achievement,  left  some  things  still  to  be  done, 
and  the  slides  of  the  Culebra  cut  will  keep  us, 
for  a  while  at  least,  from  the  decay  which  is 
supposed  to  follow  victory. 

An  inventive  Yankee  said :  "  Let  there  be 
Fords,  and  there  were  Fords  ;  "  and  they  mul- 
tiplied, until  their  number  is  "  as  the  sands  of 
the  sea."  We  dotted  the  land  with  schools 
and  colleges  and  did  a  few  other  things  edu- 
cationally besides  developing  and  refining 
the  game  of  football. 

We  had  grand  opera  on  a  superb  scale  in 
New  York  and  Chicago,  and  canned  the  sur- 


The  Nation's  Pulse  23 

plus  for  home  consumption,  thus  developing 
good  taste,  or  at  least  driving  the  fear  of 
classical  music  from  the  minds  of  the  people. 

The  movies  moved  from  Los  Angeles  to 
Podonk;  and  if  Mary  Pickford  made  us 
weep,  Charlie  Chaplin  made  us  roar,  unless 
he  made  us  shudder ;  and  they  both  drew 
princely  salaries  out  of  our  nickels  and  dimes. 
A  nation  drunk  was  becoming  a  nation  sober, 
state  after  state  went  dry  and  the  beer-brew- 
ers in  St.  Louis  and  Milwaukee  prepared  to 
manufacture  "  pop  "  on  a  large  scale. 

We  released  many  children  from  the  fac- 
tory, and  made  parks  and  playgrounds  for 
them  ;  pageantry  has  become  a  passion ;  the 
theatre  is  being  redeemed  from  its  sordid 
commercialism,  and  carried  in  hygienic  band- 
boxes to  the  tenements  and  the  rural  regions. 

The  I.  W.  W.  threw  hammers  into  our 
social  machinery,  reminding  us  by  sabotage 
of  our  sins  against  the  toilers,  and  we  have 
made  honest  efforts  to  be  just  where  we  have 
been  unjust. 

Billy  Sunday  recovered  for  us  the  fear  of 
Hell,  and  has  led  hundreds  of  thousands  from 


24  Nationalizing  America 

the  possible  cinderpath  onto  the  cooler  saw- 
dust trail.  Mr.  Carnegie  and  Mr.  Rockefeller 
vie  with  each  other  to  accomplish  the  impos- 
sible feat  of  dying  poor,  and  it  has  become  a 
disgrace  to  be  merely  rich. 

Our  choicest  men  have  sacrificed  them- 
selves upon  the  altar  of  science,  and  made 
yellow  fever  as  obsolete  as  the  Ischataurus. 

Our  cities  were  finding  themselves  ;  and 
the  huge  misshapen  things,  just  growing  up, 
like  Topsy,  took  on  form  and  put  on  beauty. 

Homes  unrivalled  for  comfort  rose  amid 
spacious  lawns ;  the  much  maligned  sky- 
scraper was  endowed  with  a  beauty  all  its 
own ;  bankers,  remembering  that  they  were 
driven  out  of  the  temple  by  the  Great 
Teacher,  built  temples  of  their  own,  and  Sol- 
omon would  eye  enviously  Grinnell's  new 
Banks.  We  were  beginning  to  see  the  in- 
iquity of  the  crowded  tenement,  and  ceased 
to  be  comfortable  with  so  much  misery 
around  us. 

The  Commission  form  of  government 
promised  relief  from  graft  and  incompetency 
and  the  town  manager  displaced  the  political 


The  Nation's  Pulse  25 

spoilsman.  Women's  Clubs  and  Federations 
were  studying  causes  and  applying  remedies, 
and  the  stateness  of  our  political  life  was  re- 
lieved and  freshened  by  the  struggle  for 
woman's  suffrage. 

Backward  communities  located  on  the  stub 
end  of  a  railroad  were  brought  onto  the 
main  road  of  thought  and  activity  by  lecture 
courses  and  chautauquas. 

From  the  national  standpoint,  these  were 
certainly  not  dull  and  stagnant  years,  or  in- 
significant ;  although  we  all  were  uncon- 
scious of  national  duties  except  when  the 
customs-house  collector  inspected  our  bag- 
gage, or  the  inheritance  tax  blank  with  its 
searching  questions  reminded  us  of  the  far- 
reaching  arm  of  government. 

If  we  were  complacent,  if  we  thought  in 
terms  of  self,  or  city,  or  state,  the  European 
war  shook  us  out  of  our  complacency,  and 
compelled  us  to  think  nationally.  Returning 
globe-trotters  thanked  God  for  this  haven  of 
refuge  and  we  who  were  here  were  grateful 
for  the  vast  ocean  between. 

The  fate  of  Belgium — the  devastation  of 


26  Nationalizing  America 

Poland — the  Armenian  atrocities — reminded 
us  of  our  nearness  to  suffering  humanity ; 
while  the  fate  of  nations  being  decided  by 
the  sword  made  us  look  to  our  own  empty 
scabbard.  Sympathies  were  aroused,  and 
skillfully  intensified  by  the  contending  na- 
tions, and  for  a  while  it  looked  as  if  America 
were  the  high  tribunal  to  decide  the  right  or 
wrong  of  their  contentions. 

Our  emotions  were  lifted  to  a  high  pitch 
by  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania^  and  the 
national  sympathies  aroused  in  the  hearts  of 
those  whose  kinsmen  were  in  the  trenches, 
the  pride  of  victory  and  the  sting  of  defeat, 
drowned  reason ;  until  division  in  our  feel- 
ings made  us  fearful  of  division  in  our  na- 
tional life. 

The  stagnation  of  our  industries  gave  place 
to  fevered  activity.  Our  plow  works  were 
turned  into  gun  works  and  pruning  hooks 
into  spears,  reversing  prophecy.  The  na- 
tional conscience  was  not  altogether  easy 
about  this  wealth  which  we  gained,  although 
we  could  honestly  say  that  we  were  doing 
legitimate  business  in  a  legitimate  way. 


The  Nation's  Pulse  27 

Our  society  ladies  knitted  scarfs  for  the 
soldiers  while  their  husbands  were  making 
fortunes  out  of  Europe's  misfortunes.  Some 
time  ago  when  I  was  the  guest  of  the  presi- 
dent of  a  great  corporation,  he  told  me 
that  his  firm  had  made  sixty  million  dollars 
profit  in  one  year  from  the  manufacture  of 
munitions  of  war.  At  the  same  time  his  wife 
excused  herself  for  breaking  the  Sabbath  by 
knitting,  as  she  was  making  socks  for  the 
poor  Belgians.  This  may  be  a  fair  illustra- 
tion of  our  national  gain  and  our  national  gift. 

If  our  conscience  did  not  hurt  us,  our  fel- 
low citizens  of  German  birth  kept  prodding 
it,  reminding  us  that  if  it  had  not  been 
for  us,  the  war  would  have  ended  long  ago. 
Evidently  they  had  no  sense  of  humor,  or 
perhaps  they  thought  that  it  was  not  our 
concern  how  it  ended. 

Being  so  far  away  from  the  war  was  after 
all  a  handicap,  for  reading  about  its  terrors 
and  seeing  them  are  entirely  different  things. 
The  Hungarian  gipsy  who  was  drafted  into 
the  army  and  went  reluctantly,  was  told  that 
war  is  beautiful.  He  replied  :  "  Yes,  war  is 


28  Nationalizing  America 

beautiful,  but  from  the  distance."  So  little 
has  the  war  touched  us  personally  that  we 
could  see  its  poetry  and  its  ethical  signifi- 
cance which  rose  above  the  trenches. 

We  saw  France,  once  the  symbol  of  friv- 
olity, assailing  and  resisting  a  mighty  foe  ; 
while  the  Marne  and  Verdun  assumed  the 
spiritual  values  of  the  Jordan  and  Calvary. 
We  envied  efficient,  united  Germany,  strik- 
ing unfailingly  and  unerringly,  as  with  one 
mighty  arm. 

We  applauded  our  Canadian  cousins,  who 
gave  so  freely  their  treasure  of  money  and 
their  choicest  men. 

We  contrasted  dark,  sober  Paris  with  gay 
New  York,  our  blundering,  inefficient  ways, 
our  reluctant  congress,  our  straggling  in- 
dividualism, our  dishevelled  Columbia,  with 
trim,  alert,  effective,  efficient  Germania. 

Terrified  at  first  by  the  horror  of  war,  we 
became  fascinated  by  it ;  once  on  our  knees 
thanking  God  for  a  president  who  kept  us 
out  of  war,  and  then  clamoring  for  one  to 
lead  us  into  it ;  hovering  alternately  between 
the  fear  of  it  and  the  joy  of  it,  between  its 


The  Nation's  Pulse  29 

terror  and  its  need.  We  have  been  asking 
ourselves  if  we  are  capable  of  great  deeds, 
and  of  noble  sacrifices,  now  that  fifty  years 
of  peace  have  softened  us,  and  weakened  our 
national  consciousness.  Moreover,  we  dis- 
covered that  we  are  not  agreed  upon  the 
great  questions  arising  out  of  this  war,  above 
all  whether  we  shall  have  an  active  share  in 
it  on  one  side  or  the  other. 

Three  distinct  divisions  were  visible.  The 
pro-Ally  group  under  such  distinguished 
leadership  as  to  make  it  dominant,  having 
behind  it  practically  the  whole  American 
press.  The  pro-German  group,  composed 
largely  of  American  citizens  of  German  birth, 
and  the  Pacifists  with  their  baptism  of  ridi- 
cule, administered  according  to  Baptist 
formula  by  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
Dutch  Reformed  Church. 

The  latter  two  groups  are  the  direct  cause 
of  our  national  skepticism,  and  we  have  been 
asking  ourselves — are  we  a  nation  or  merely 
a  conglomerate  of  people? 

Our  oldest,  safest,  and  most  like-minded 
citizens  of  foreign  birth  differ  violently  from 


30  Nationalizing  America 

the  majority,  some  of  them  even  being  ca- 
pable of  treasonable  utterances,  under  the 
spell  of  sympathy  with  the  home  land.  If 
these  things  happen  in  the  "  green  tree  "  what 
will  happen  in  "  the  dry  "  ?  If  the  Germans, 
co-workers  with  us  for  nearly  three  hundred 
years  in  the  making  of  the  nation,  turn 
against  us,  what  will  happen  in  some  great 
crisis,  among  the  Slavs,  the  Latins  and  the 
Jews,  many  of  whom  have  thus  far  shared 
with  us  only  our  dinner-pails,  and  not  our 
ideals  ? 

This  questioning  mood  has  become  serious, 
and  the  "  Hyphenated  American  "  seems  to 
us  a  positive  menace  to  our  national  secur- 
ity. We  are  accusing  ourselves  because  of 
our  laxity  in  Americanizing  the  alien,  for 
leaving  the  process  to  time  and  chance,  when 
we  should  have  applied  a  daily  scrubbing  in 
water  and  lye  to  rub  off  national  character- 
istics, and  kill  the  microbe  of  national  sym- 
pathies. "America  First"  has  become  the 
shibboleth  of  patriot  and  partisan,  and  it  has 
been  used  indiscriminately  for  national  and 
party  purposes. 


The  Nation's  Pulse  31 

The  Pacifist  has  given  us  no  less  cause  for 
anxiety.  He  is  the  symptom  of  national 
spinal  meningitis.  He  who  is  not  for  war  is 
against  the  nation.  He  is  the  "  Molly 
Coddle,"  "The  College  Sissy,"  akin  to  the 
copperhead,  the  snake  in  the  grass,  whose 
head  must  be  crushed  to  save  the  Nation. 

That  we'  are  a  decadent  people  is  not  true. 
A  people  at  work,  daily  at  its  work,  at  the 
task  of  feeding  and  building,  and  teaching, 
is  not  a  dying  people.  The  White  Way  in 
New  York  is  not  the  artery  of  America,  nor  is 
Wall  Street  its  conscience.  America's  main 
artery  runs  east  and  west  from  the  harbor 
of  New  York  to  The  Golden  Gate  at  San 
Francisco.  The  blood  runs  fast — too  fast 
perchance — through  the  body  of  a  toiling 
people.  There  are,  of  course,  country  clubs, 
and  vast  estates,  and  lobster  palaces  ;  but  the 
millions — the  vast  millions — are  at  work  and 
have  scant  leisure  for  decay.  The  reveille 
blown  by  steam  wakens  them,  the  mill  and 
the  mine  call  for  their  strength  and  for  the 
daily  sacrifice  of  health  and  life. 

From  sunrise  to  sunset,  between  rows  of 


32  Nationalizing  America 

corn,  the  farmer  marches  his  weary  miles, 
and  if  he  is  unconscious  of  great  national 
problems,  and  is  not  eager  to  rush  into  war, 
it  does  not  mean  that  he  is  not  a  patriot,  or 
ready  when  the  time  comes  to  make  the 
great  sacrifice.  Three  crops  of  alfalfa  a 
season  keep  the  West  busy,  and  digging  for 
gold  and  coal  are  added  tasks  which  must 
be  performed  even  in  time  of  war.  Wyo- 
ming and  Idaho  and  California  show  no  signs 
of  decay  ;  while  from  the  mountains  and  from 
beyond  them  come  the  sounds  of  toil. 

I  have  watched  the  development  of  Amer- 
ica for  the  last  thirty  years  from  no  mean 
vantage  ground ;  I  have  watched  the  cities 
and  the  country  East  and  West,  North  and 
South,  and  I  can  say  with  a  sense  of  firm 
conviction  that  we  are  not  a  decadent 
people.  We  are  a  people  still  in  the  mak- 
ing and  our  pains  are  growing  pains,  not  the 
pains  of  death  or  decay. 

Are  we  a  nation?  Do  we  know  what  a 
nation  is  ?  Can  we  intensify,  nationalize  this 
group  which  we  call  a  nation  ?  That  we 
have  need  for  self-examination  I  believe ; 


The  Nation's  Pulse  33 

that  we  should  smite  our  breasts  in  the  spirit 
of  true  repentance  I  admit ;  that  our  ideals 
are  not  as  high  as  they  ought  to  be  is  true. 
We  shall  have  to  make  a  fair  appraisement 
of  our  assets  and  our  liabilities,  and  set  our 
house  in  order. 

For  this  high  task  we  need  light  more 
than  heat,  reason  more  than  passion,  patri- 
otism rather  than  partisanship.  We  need  to 
ask  ourselves  whether  we  are  a  nation,  what 
kind  of  nation  we  are  and  what  kind  we 
ought  to  be.  Let  us  ask  ourselves  whether 
we  have  the  power  to  make  citizens  out  of 
aliens  and  how  to  use  this  power  wisely  and 
effectively ;  what  we  should  compel  them  to 
use  of  our  own  inheritance,  and  what  we 
may  accept  from  them  as  a  contribution. 

I  shall  try  to  answer  all  these  questions ; 
whether  I  can  do  it  to  my  reader's  satisfac- 
tion I  do  not  know  ;  for  I  am  under  the 
double  handicap  of  being  a  "  Hyphenated 
American  "  and  a  Pacifist ;  yet  even  with  this 
handicap  I  can  say  always,  all  the  time,  and 
everywhere,  America  First. 


II 

Nationalism 

ONE  may  travel  widely  and  yet  think 
always  in  terms  of  his  nation ;  but 
the  emigrant,  who  leaves  his  people 
and  makes  a  home  for  himself  and  his  chil- 
dren in  another  land,  has  to  accept  a  new  na- 
tional view-point,  which  necessarily  becomes 
broadened.  This  is  especially  true  of  the 
emigrant  to  the  United  States,  where  the 
contact  with  many  varied  elements  tends  to 
break  down  national  conceits.  I  am  ap- 
proaching this  subject,  therefore,  from  the 
standpoint  of  one  who  through  force  of  cir- 
cumstances as  well  as  from  conviction  had  to 
think  internationally. 

The  common  view,  which  divides  the  peo- 
ple of  this  earth  into  the  clean  and  the  un- 
clean, into  the  chosen,  and  those  who  exist 
merely  to  accentuate  the  superiority  of  one's 
own  people,  has  to  be  abandoned,  in  the 
34 


Nationalism  35 

light  of  the  new  experience.  The  old  con- 
ceit may  give  place  to  a  new  one,  but  even 
if,  like  myself,  one  becomes  an  American 
whole-heartedly  and  without  reserve,  the  new 
allegiance  is  something  bigger  than  that 
which  he  forswore. 

Looking,  then,  at  this  subject  from  the 
larger  vantage  point,  what  is  this  thing 
which  we  call  a  nation,  this  unit  which  has 
marked  all  its  boundaries  in  blood,  no 
matter  what  the  color  it  has  painted  on  his 
banner?  What  is  this  which  draws  out 
man's  loyalty,  more  than  home  or  church, 
or  truth  itself?  This  for  which  he  is  taught 
to  kill  his  fellow  creatures,  this  which  knows 
no  law  of  God  or  man?  This  something 
which  may  still  call  for  human  sacrifice,  long 
after  humanity  has  repudiated  gods  who  did 
likewise  ? — This  religion — for  it  is  a  religion 
— which  punishes  betrayal  by  death,  and 
never  forgives  ? 

What  is  this  rigid,  unyielding,  colossal, 
monster-like  thing  which  to  us  who  believe 
in  it  is  something  more  than  divine,  but  to 
others  whose  flags  bear  other  colors,  some- 


36  Nationalizing  America 

thing  devilish  to  be  hated  and  destroyed? 
What  is  a  nation  ? 

The  simplest  definition  given  is  this :  "  A 
nation  is  a  population  of  an  ethnic  unity  occu- 
pying territory  of  a  geographic  unity."  But 
we  are  practically  told  by  the  man  who  makes 
this  definition,  what  the  farmer  said  who,  for 
the  first  time,  saw  a  rhinoceros :  "  There  ain't 
no  such  animal ; "  for  he  adds  that  "  The  ge- 
ographic overlaps  the  ethnic."  That  is,  the 
land  includes  different  racial  elements,  or  the 
racial  elements  reach  out  beyond  the  land, 
which  is  under  the  political  dominion  of  that 
particular  people. 

Austria  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  first 
exception,  for  it  includes  many  different 
ethnic  elements,  and  its  internal  difficulties 
are  due  to  the  attempt  to  impose  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  dominant  people  upon  the 
weaker  ones. 

Servia  is  an  illustration  of  the  want  of  geo- 
graphic unity.  There  are  Serbs  in  Macedo- 
nia, in  Hungary,  in  Croatia,  and  Montene- 
gro. The  attempt  to  bring  these  people  into 
one  geographic  group  has  caused  constant 


Nationalism  37 

friction  with  Austria,  and  was  the  direct  cause 
which  led  to  the  present  great  war. 

In  a  sense,  then,  geography  makes  a  na- 
tion. The  land  and  its  boundaries  which  be- 
come sacred,  which  must  be  defended,  form 
the  hallowed  circle  which  marks  the  Father- 
land from  the  enemy's  land.  That  which  is 
only  pasture,  woodland,  quarry  and  mine,  is 
idealized,  and  takes  on  the  aspect  of  home 
and  temple,  the  abode  of  man's  divinities. 
The  Greeks  lifted  this  passion  for  the  land  to 
the  highest  pitch,  and  their  mountains,  blue 
seas  and  fairy  isles,  lent  themselves  easily  to 
such  idealization. 

The  Jew  never  felt  the  sensuous  appeal  of 
the  land  ;  perhaps  because  he  was  made  con- 
scious of  the  fact  that  he  was  only  a  stranger 
and  sojourner  here  below,  and  that  his  God 
dwelt  in  the  heavens  not  made  with  hands ; 
or  because  he  found  his  promised  land,  not 
"  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,"  but  infected 
by  grasshoppers  and  plagued  by  drought. 
Yet  the  Holy  City,  Jerusalem,  beautiful  for 
situation,  gripped  him.  When  he  was  in 
that  comfortable  captivity  in  Babylon,  in 


38  Nationalizing  America 

those  magnificent  cities  by  the  busy  water- 
courses, in  that  commercial  environment,  into 
which  he  might  have  fitted  so  well  in  these 
latter  days,  he  longed  for  Jerusalem.  He 
hung  his  harp  upon  the  mournful  willow- 
trees,  and  refused  to  sing ;  for  "  How  can  we 
sing  the  Lord's  songs  in  a  strange  land?" 

The  Russians,  like  the  Greeks,  have  this 
strong  feeling  for  their  land,  although  it  is  so 
vast,  so  monotonous  in  its  great  level  stretches, 
so  dismal  through  the  long  winters.  Yet  when 
the  Russian  speaks  affectionately  of  "  Mother 
Russia,"  and  prostrates  himself  upon  the 
ground,  he  is  not  thinking  of  government, 
of  Moscow  or  Petrograd,  but  of  the  wide  flat 
plain,  the  mighty  rivers,  the  tremendous  arch 
of  the  Russian  sky.  He  is  thinking  of  the 
white  birches  which  accentuate  the  dark 
woods,  which  beget  his  wild  gaiety,  as  well 
as  his  somber  gloom,  and  out  of  which  have 
come  his  legends,  his  folk-tales,  and  his  mel- 
ancholy songs. 

The  land  is  most  interwoven  with  nation- 
ality among  the  Germans,  whose  singers, 
poets  and  statesmen  have  used  it  as  never 


Nationalism  3  9 

failing  material  to  awaken  and  strengthen  pa- 
triotism. The  Rhine,  the  busiest  river  in 
Europe,  is  not  only  a  commercial  waterway 
essential  to  the  country's  expanding  busi- 
ness ;  it  is  the  main  artery  of  its  emotional 
life.  How  the  German's  eye  glows  when  he 
beholds  it ;  how  strong  his  arm  grows  at  the 
thought  of  defending  it:  " Der  Rhein,  sie 
sollen  ihn  nicht  haben,  den  Deutschen, 
Deutschen  Rhein"  It  is  not  a  mere  river, 
it  is  a  German  river. 

With  this  love  of  the  land  he  has  exalted 
such  lowly  mountains  as  the  Harz,  and  has 
beatified  such  dreary  plains  as  the  Luene- 
burger  Heide.  In  order  to  know  this  Father- 
land from  end  to  end,  every  apprentice  wan- 
ders out  as  a  journeyman  from  place  to  place, 
and  identifies  himself  with  its  cities,  its  moun- 
tains and  plains  ;  so  that  the  land  becomes  his, 
though  he  does  not  own  a  foot  of  real  estate. 

What  a  wonderful  sight  it  is  to  us  restless 
globe-trotters  when  we  come  upon  orderly 
groups  of  German  schoolboys  in  charge  of 
their  teachers,  studying  German  history  on 
mountains  and  by  rivers,  eating  their  frugal 


40  Nationalizing  America 

lunches  beneath  the  oak-trees  of  the  forests. 
Each  new  sight  suggests  a  new  song,  an 
overflowing  treasure  for  which  we  might 
well  envy  them. 

Important  as  is  the  geographic  factor,  the 
nation  is  something  more  than  territory.  We 
speak  of  the  sacredness  of  the  land,  yet  it 
may  be  increased  or  decreased  by  conquest, 
making  it  after  all  not  so  fixed  a  factor  in 
the  life  of  a  nation,  which  is  something  more 
than  the  "rocks,  and  rills,  the  woods  and 
templed  hills"  of  which  we  sing  often  but 
feel  so  little.  The  nation  is  above  everything 
else  a  people. 

The  colors  of  the  maps  are  after  all  the 
colors  of  the  people,  and  the  people  who 
have  long  lived  ,together  in  a  land  are  more 
or  less  physically  related.  This  physical  re- 
lationship may  have  been  more  necessary  in 
the  past  than  it  now  is  for  the  development 
of  a  strong  nation  ;  but  even  now,  "  blood  is 
thicker  than  water,"  though  we  are  becom- 
ing conscious  of  the  fact  that  there  is  some- 
thing thicker  than  blood. 

The  union  of  the  German  states  was  made 


Nationalism  4 1 

possible  because  of  the  physical  bond  and 
the  physical  likeness,  which  tended  to 
become  more  uniform  after  the  creation 
of  the  Empire.  There  was  a  German 
type  which  became  the  ideal  type,  and 
where  it  did  not  exist  it  was  artificially  stim- 
ulated. Even  as  now  many  German-Amer- 
icans, to  show  their  kinship,  are  cropping 
their  hair  close  and  growing  their  moustaches 
a  la  Kaiser  Wilhelm  ;  while  our  young  men 
grow  them  a  la  Charlie  Chaplin,  which  fact 
may  not,  I  trust,  be  altogether  indicative  of 
the  physical  ideals  of  our  young  men. 

Italian  unity  long  delayed,  while  finally 
hammered  into  being  by  foreign  aggression, 
and  melted  into  one  by  the  passion  of  Gari- 
baldi, the  holy  fervor  of  Mazzini  and  the  keen 
statesmanship  of  Cavour,  was  made  possible 
by  the  sense  of  physical  relationship.  But 
immigration,  military  invasion,  and  the  re- 
sultant intermarriage  have  nearly  every- 
where destroyed  this  ethnic  bond. 

The  predominant  strain  in  Germany  is 
Teutonic ;  yet  Prussia  shows  a  strong  Slavic 
vein,  coming  from  earlier  progenitors  and 


42  Nationalizing  America 

from  the  present  complete  assimilation  of  the 
Wendic  people  who,  for  a  long  time,  main- 
tained Slavic  islands  in  the  midst  of  this  Ger- 
man stream. 

In  Russia,  Finn  and  Tartar  have  made 
their  contribution  to  the  dominant  race  ;  the 
modern  Austrian  is  apt  to  be  a  mixture  of 
German,  Slav,  Magyar  and  Latin ;  while  the 
Semitic  strain  is  not  inconsiderable. 

We  in  the  United  States  are  forming  a  na- 
tion out  of  material  as  ethnically  differenti- 
ated as  is  the  whole  human  race. 

A  common  language  is  more  essential  than 
ties  of  blood  for  the  knitting  of  a  people  into 
a  nation,  and  those  who  have  the  task  of 
shaping  diverse  elements  into  a  common 
unit  care  little  or  nothing  of  what  people 
they  were  born,  as  long  as  they  can  impose 
upon  them  their  language.  They  know  that 
people  who  use  the  same  terms  will  shape  their 
lives  by  the  same  mould,  and  that  a  likeness 
akin  to  that  begotten  by  physical  relationship 
will  be  established. 

A  most  striking  illustration  of  this  can  be 
seen  in  Hungary.  The  dominant  race  is 


Nationalism  43 

Magyar,  a  Ugro-Finnish  group,  more  Asiatic 
than  European,  speaking  an  agglutinative 
language,  related  in  form  and  structure  to 
Turkish  and  Finnish.  The  Magyars  are  the 
conquerors  of  Slav  and  Latins,  whom  they 
have  left  undisturbed  in  their  respective  ter- 
ritories. There  was  also  an  influx  of  German 
immigrants,  who  were  professional  and 
tradespeople.  They  moved  into  the  cites,  and 
their  language  became  current  in  the  busi- 
ness centers.  The  city  of  Buda-Pesth  was 
until  forty  years  ago  as  German  as  the  city 
of  Vienna ;  in  fact  it  spoke  its  German  with 
the  same  soft  and  pleasant  accent. 

Then  came  the  wave  of  nationalism  which 
swept  over  Europe  influencing  the  smaller  na- 
tions even  more  than  the  powerful  ones,  and 
the  process  of  Magyarizingwas  begun  through 
the  language.  First  it  was  dignified  by  the 
creation  of  a  literature,  and  the  translation  of 
all  available  literary  and  scientific  material. 
The  names  of  German  and  Slavic  cities  were 
changed  into  something  which  wiped  out 
their  historic  connection,  and  which  the  in- 
habitants found  difficult  to  pronounce.  The 


44  Nationalizing  America 

public  schools  were  brought  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  state,  and  instruction  was  permit- 
ted only  in  the  authorized  language.  Even 
family  names  were  translated  into  Magyar, 
and  so  the  relation  with  the  past  broken. 

It  is  said  that  a  German  Jew  who  came  to 
visit  his  relatives  in  Buda-Pesth  began  to  in- 
quire after  the  welfare  of  his  friends.  "  How 
is  Mr.  Weiss?"  "Weiss,"  replied  his  rela- 
tive ;  "  there  is  no  one  by  that  name  living 
in  this  city." 

The  guest  could  not  believe  that  all  the 
Weisses  had  either  died  or  moved  away  since 
his  last  visit,  so  he  gave  a  close  description 
of  the  appearance  of  his  friend.  "  Oh,  you 
mean  Feher,"  his  relative  replied.  All  the 
Weisses  had  become  something  else. 

"  And  how  is  my  friend  Schwartz  ?  "  Again 
the  same  difficulty ;  for  all  the  Schwartzes 
had  become  Fekete,  and  all  the  Gruens  were 
Szolnoy.  As  they  walked  along,  the  visitor 
asked  many  questions  about  the  new  sights. 
Approaching  a  colossal  statue  of  St.  Peter 
which  stands  in  front  of  the  Cathedral : 
"  Who  is  this  ?  "  he  asked.  "  That,"  was  the 


Nationalism  45 

reply,  "  is  St.  Peter."  "  And  what  was  his 
name  before  he  came  to  Buda-Pesth  ? "  the 
visitor  naturally  inquired. 

This  translation  of  names  may  seem  to  us 
very  superficial  and  insignificant ;  but  how 
far-reaching  it  must  be  may  be  demonstrated 
here  in  the  United  States,  where  similar 
changes  are  taking  place,  under  social  rather 
than  governmental  pressure. 

Crossing  the  ocean  in  the  steerage  and 
interviewing  the  returning  immigrants,  I 
found  an  Italian  who  introduced  himself  as 
John  L.  Sullivan  from  Boston.  When  you 
are  told  that  his  name  before  he  became 
Americanized  was  Giovanni  Salvini,  you  re- 
alize something  of  the  inner  changes  which 
must  have  taken  place.  The  government  of 
Hungary  made  this  pressure  so  strong,  and 
so  complete  were  the  changes  wrought,  that 
counter-pressure  was  started  and  the  process 
resisted. 

The  people  of  Bohemia  are  still  more  aware 
of  the  value  of  language  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  nation,  and  they  have  fought  the 
most  bitter  struggle  of  any  people  in  Europe. 


46  Nationalizing  America 

The  re-baptism  of  St.  Petersburgh  into 
Petrograd,  and  the  publication  in  Germany 
of  a  fairly  good  sized  dictionary  of  expur- 
gated foreign  words,  shows  the  place  language 
holds  in  creating  deep  national  feeling.  The 
strongest  element,  however,  and  the  one  in- 
dispensable to  the  making  of  a  nation  is  a 
common  tradition. 

The  Jews  have  maintained  national  feeling 
and  an  enviable  cohesion,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  they  have  no  land  they  may  call  their 
own.  There  are  many  nations  in  which  the 
ethnic  unity  is  broken,  or  is  even  non-existent, 
as  in  Switzerland,  which  with  Belgium  is  void 
of  a  common  language,  although  they  have 
a  common  history. 

A  ragged  minstrel  recalling  in  his  quaver- 
ing song  the  exploits  of  Czar  Duchan  six 
hundred  years  ago,  leading  the  Serbs  to  vic- 
tory against  the  Turks,  makes  patriots  of 
stupid,  half-starved  Montenegrins,  and  is 
used  as  material  to  bring  together  the  scat- 
tered Serbo-Slavs  into  a  more  mighty  king- 
dom. 

No  one  but  a  Scotchman  can  tell  what 


Nationalism  47 

flashes  upon  his  mind  when  he  hears  the 
bagpipes  skirling  to  the  tune :  "  The  Camp- 
bells are  coming." 

It  is  not  land  or  blood  or  a  common  speech 
which  makes  the  Jew  still  the  Jew  after  two 
thousand  years,  but  that  incomparable  his- 
tory found  between  the  covers  of  the  Old 
Testament.  At  no  time  is  he  permitted  to 
forget  his  suffering  in  Egypt  and  his  deliver- 
ance. The  ritual  of  the  Jew's  religion  is  an 
historic  pageant,  and  if  he  does  not  witness 
it  at  least  once  a  year,  he  is  no  more  a  Jew. 

Divided  groups  are  bound  together  by  an 
eventful  history,  great  common  risks,  quick 
decisive  results ;  and  the  more  venturesome 
the  risks,  the  more  lasting  the  unity  gained. 
That  is  the  reason  war  seems  so  essential  a 
factor  in  the  making  of  a  nation.  Thus  far 
the  physical  risks  alone  have  counted,  for  the 
masses  of  men  have  remained  unconscious 
of  other,  higher  risks  and  loftier  adventures. 

How  slow  is  the  winning  of  the  race,  we 
know,  who  live  in  this  century  on  the 
Campus,  where  a  football  victory  over  the 
athletic  foe  counts  more  for  college  unity 


48  Nationalizing  America 

than  the  discovery,  often  at  great  risk  to  life, 
of  a  new,  health-bringing  serum. 

Seventeen  young  people  of  my  college 
have  recently  decided  upon  a  great  venture, 
the  spiritual  conquest  of  a  continent.  They 
are  going  to  a  "far  country"  as  teachers, 
preachers  and  physicians.  How  much  they 
move  the  life  of  the  college  I  do  not  know  ; 
but  eleven  men  going  out  to  beat  the  Uni- 
versity eleven  set  the  pulses  throbbing  and 
the  heart  beating  faster.  When  they  come 
back  victors,  they  have  made  college  history, 
and  the  bonfires  blaze  for  the  eleven  as  I 
never  saw  them  blaze  for  the  seventeen. 

The  advocates  of  war  may  tell  us  that  they 
believe  it  is  a  disease  to  which  nations  are 
subject ;  but  they  know  in  their  heart  of 
hearts  and  they  say  it,  although  not  often  as 
boldly  as  Treitschke,  that  war  is  a  necessity. 
Common  danger,  and  war  seems  to  be  the 
only  common  danger  of  which  we  have  be- 
come conscious,  creates  common  interests, 
and  men  forget  their  private  affairs  in  the 
common  cause.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to 
keep  alive  in  the  mind  of  a  nation  the  fear  of 


Nationalism  49 

a  common  danger.  Diplomatic  "  watchful 
waiting  "  is  not  sufficient ;  it  has  to  be  armed 
watchful  waiting.  The  sound  of  fife  and 
drum  and  the  rhythmic  beat  of  marching  feet 
are  a  greater  force  in  making  a  nation  con- 
scious of  itself  than  the  writing  of  diplomatic 
letters,  no  matter  how  skillfully  worded,  or 
how  successful  they  are  in  averting  war. 

History  made  of  this  stern  stuff,  of  bullet- 
riddled  flags,  of  cemeteries  with  monotonous 
rows  of  graves,  of  some  name  made  brilliant 
by  war's  adventure,  has  thus  far  been  neces- 
sary to  the  life  of  this  closely  knitted  unit 
which  we  call  a  nation.  Some  day  we  shall 
realize  that  there  are  other  risks  than  those 
of  foreign  conquest ;  but  men  are  always 
blindest  to  nearest  dangers,  and  are  most 
ready  to  prepare  against  a  foe  from  without. 
That  "a  man's  foes  are  those  of  his  own 
household  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth  knew  ;  but  He 
counts  very  little  as  a  counsellor  of  nations. 

History  not  only  records  the  past,  it  de- 
termines the  future  ;  it  not  only  unites  a  peo- 
ple in  a  great  purpose,  it  also  determines  its 
character.  A  nation  consciously  or  uncon- 


50  Nationalizing  America 

sciously  declares  a  certain  character  good 
or  bad,  and  a  certain  ideal  right  or  wrong. 
We  say  this  is  American  and  it  is  good,  and 
this  is  un-American  and  it  is  undesirable.  It 
is  a  question  of  how  people  earn  or  spend 
their  money,  how  they  play  and  in  what 
spirit  they  win  or  lose ;  how  they  approach 
each  other,  how  easily  they  get  the  point  of 
a  joke ;  how  the  men  treat  their  women,  and 
all  those  ceremonials  of  the  common  life 
which  we  call  the  proper  thing. 

I  have  written  before  of  the  Jewish  shop- 
keeper in  Boston  who  reproved  me  when  I 
wanted  to  be  polite.  Leaving  a  street  car  I 
carried  a  woman's  bundles  which  were  too 
large  for  the  "  Hub's  "  narrow  sidewalk.  To 
give  her  more  room  I  walked  on  the  inside, 
and  this  Jewish  shopkeeper  called  to  me : 
"  Say,  you  greenhorn,  in  America  the  gentle- 
mens  don't  walks  on  the  insides  of  the  la- 
dies." He  had  caught  the  national  ideal. 

The  most  powerful  tradition,  as  I  have 
pointed  out  in  the  case  of  the  Jews,  is  that 
which  expresses  itself  through  religion. 
Then  nationality  and  religion  become  one, 


Nationalism  5 1 

which  is  true  not  only  of  the  Jews  but  of 
many  Slavs,  notably  the  Russians  and  the 
Poles.  Where  the  Church  lends  itself  to  na- 
tional aspirations  it  becomes  a  mighty  force 
for  good  or  evil,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that 
statesmen  support  one  religion  and  suppress 
another. 

Austria  supports  the  Moslem  faith  in 
Bosnia,  and  frowns  upon  the  Protestant 
Church  in  Bohemia. 

Russia  is  ruthless  towards  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church,  but  tolerates  Protestantism,  and 
makes  no  objection  to  Mohammedanism  or 
Buddhism.  Out  of  this  religious  leaning, 
which  may  more  or  less  represent  the  relig- 
ious ideals  of  a  nation,  arises  the  State 
Church ;  but  even  where  there  is  no  State 
Church,  religion  will  have  a  certain  form  of 
expression.  The  schools,  too,  take  on  a 
special  form,  and  are  regarded,  at  least  with 
us,  as  more  important  than  the  Church  in  the 
shaping  of  a  nation's  character. 

The  most  essential  institution  to  which  the 
nation  gives  birth  is  the  State,  and  the  great 
struggle  in  Europe  is  partly  due  to  the  fact 


52  Nationalizing  America 

that  the  nations  whose  government  is  super- 
imposed desire  to  have  their  own  political 
State.  The  struggle  of  Ireland,  Poland,  Bo- 
hemia, and  Albania,  the  awakened  Jewish 
nationalism,  known  as  Zionism,  are  good  ex- 
amples. The  tenacity  of  this  struggle  and 
the  sacrifices  men  are  willing  to  make  for  its 
attainment  are  the  most  wonderful  phenom- 
ena of  our  day. 

In  many  of  its  aspects  nationalism  deserves 
the  high  place  it  holds  and  is  worth  the  cost. 
It  has  brought  dignity  to  the  despised, 
quickened  the  mentality  of  the  sluggish, 
made  dialects  into  languages,  created  litera- 
ture, stimulated  art.  It  has  acted  as  a  rally- 
ing ground  for  hopelessly  divided  groups, 
and  has  lifted  politics  to  the  sublimity  of  re- 
ligion. I 

What  nationalism  may  do  for  a  peo- 
ple when  it  attains  its  desires  can  best  be 
seen  in  the  history  of  Germany  for  the  last 
hundred  years.  Split  into  some  three  hun- 
dred domains,  despised  by  other  nations,  her 
soil  furrowed  by  the  wheels  of  French  can- 
non and  reddened  by  the  blood  of  her  sons ; 


Nationalism  5  3 

her  language  despised  by  her  own  educated 
people,  French  the  speech  of  the  court,  for- 
eign literature  her  pattern,  that  is  Germany's 
past.  Now  she  is  this  well  moulded  colossus 
cast  as  if  of  one  piece ;  this  giant  striking  as 
with  one  arm ;  this  mind  moving  as  by  one 
volition ;  this  challenger  of  the  world  in  the 
field  of  science,  commerce,  art  and  military 
skill.  Germany  has  spent  a  hundred  years 
on  this  task;  and  the  home,  the  church, 
barracks  and  schools,  factories  and  banks, 
poets  and  cobblers,  the  philosophers  and  the 
storekeepers,  moved  towards  this  one  pur- 
pose. You  may  hate  Germany,  you  cannot 
despise  her ;  you  may  fear  her  but  you  must 
admire  her.  She  is  par  excellence  the  nation- 
alized state,  the  most  wonderful  achievement 
in  the  sphere  of  politics  that  the  world  has 
ever  seen. 

The  danger  from  Germany  is  the  danger 
which  comes  in  the  wake  of  every  such 
achievement.  It  is  the  danger  which  came 
from  France  a  hundred  years  ago,  when  she 
had  reached  just  such  a  goal.  Her  aspira- 
tions like  those  of  all  nations  had  a  high  pur- 


54  Nationalizing  America 

pose ;  to  serve  humanity,  to  free  the  unfree 
people.  She  was  to  be  Poland's  deliverer, 
the  saviour  of  Russia's  downtrodden  mil- 
lions ;  but  when  France  reached  her  goal, 
she  fought  for  further  glory,  and  conquered 
only  to  enslave.  Wordsworth  voices  the  dis- 
appointment of  that  period  when  he  says : 

"  But  now  become  oppressors  in  their  turn, 
Frenchmen  have  changed  a  war  of  self-defense 
For  one  of  conquest,  losing  sight  of  all 
Which  they  had  struggled  for ; 
I  read  her  doom  with  anger  vexed,  with  disap- 
pointment sore." 

This  is  the  base  side  of  nationalism.  Be- 
coming free,  it  grows  strong,  being  strong,  it 
is  arrogant.  It  uses  the  bayonet  and  not  the 
magnet,  it  forces  but  does  not  attract.  It  is 
always  sublimely  selfish,  no  matter  what  its 
profession. 

The  heart  of  the  American  nation  went  out 
to  the  Hungarian  exile  Kossuth,  who  led  the 
struggle  for  Hungary's  freedom  from  the 
rather  easy  yoke  of  Austria.  He  aroused 
sympathy  with  his  people,  sympathy  ex- 
pressed in  a  tangible  form.  When,  however, 


Nationalism  55 

the  Hungarians  attained  their  independence 
within  the  Hungarian  state,  they  practiced 
all  the  cruelties  which  nations  may  use  upon 
weaker  nationalities,  and  Kossuth's  son  be- 
came the  most  relentless  persecutor. 

The  history  of  the  Balkan  states  for  the 
last  fifty  years  is  the  story  of  suppressed  na- 
tionalities gaining  their  independence  and 
then  in  turn  outdoing  the  Turk,  their  master, 
in  oppression. 

Greece,  Byron's  favorite,  helped  to  free- 
dom by  his  passionate  love,  arises  from  un- 
derneath the  heel  of  Turkey,  and  immedi- 
ately puts  her  foot  upon  Serb  and  Bulgar  in 
Macedonia,  and  upon  helpless  Albania,  using 
the  Church  as  her  tool  and  keeping  brigands 
in  her  pay. 

Serbs  and  Bui  gars,  arousing  the  pity  of 
the  world  by  their  long  and  cruel  subjection, 
horrify  the  nations  by  cruel  butcheries  which, 
until  two  years  ago,  were  regarded  as  savage ; 
but  now  have  gained  sanction,  through  the 
methods  employed  in  modern  warfare,  by 
their  civilized  critics. 

England,  so  long  posing  as  the  champion 


56  Nationalizing  America 

of  smaller  nations,  aims  the  guns  of  her 
battle-ships  on  Christian  villages  in  Crete, 
to  keep  them  subjects  of  the  Turk,  aids 
Russia  in  despoiling  helpless  Persia  and 
does  not  protest  against  Armenian  atrocities, 
although  having  influence  with  the  Turks  ; 
after  which  she  goes  to  war,  ostensibly  to 
protect  Belgian  neutrality. 

That  England  has  no  monopoly  of  that 
hypocrisy  of  which  she  is  so  violently  ac- 
cused by  Germany  is  shown  in  the  sublime 
spectacle  of  Kaiser  Wilhelm  in  the  r61e  of 
the  protector  of  Ireland.  The  truly  appall- 
ing thing  is  the  immorality  of  the  nations, 
which  culminates  in  the  greatest  immorality, 
war. 

The  American  who  watches  the  growth  of 
his  nation  must  have  a  true  vision  of  the 
place  nations  hold  in  the  history  of  human- 
ity. Clear-mindedly  he  must  face  the  fact 
that  as  yet  they  are  essential  to  the  progress 
of  humanity,  and  that  the  nation  may  claim 
the  supreme  allegiance  of  its  citizens. 
Nevertheless  he  must  lift  his  voice  in  behalf 
of  an  ideal,  which  had  its  birth  among  men 


Nationalism  5  7 

and  women  who  looked  beyond  the  tent 
props  of  their  tribes,  yet  were  loyal  to  its 
interests ;  who  could  love  their  kind,  yet  not 
neglect  their  kindred  ;  who  heard  a  call  from 
across  dividing  borders,  yet  were  true  pa- 
triots ;  who  put  humanity  first,  yet  did  not 
put  their  country  last.  It  is  an  ideal  not 
easily  named  or  defined,  for  while  it  springs 
primarily  from  a  vision  it  utters  itself  as  a 
protest. 

It  is  a  vision  of  nations  working  out  their 
destiny  by  each  contributing  to  the  common 
weal  its  own  gifts,  developed  under  those 
peculiar  circumstances  which  climate,  race, 
speech,  history  and  religion  have  deter- 
mined. It  is  not  a  vision  of  mixing  and 
levelling,  that  monotonous  civilization  with- 
out contrasts  or  even  without  conflicts ;  it 
abhors  the  cosmopolite,  with  his  roots  in 
shifting  sands,  a  pariah,  not  a  patriot ;  but 
it  does  see,  or  strains  to  see  levelled  for- 
tresses, spiked  guns  and  peace  among  the 
nations — not  a  dormant,  but  an  active  peace, 
based  upon  good  will. 

Nations  must  protest  against  putting  the 


58  Nationalizing  America 

existence  and  growth  of  institutions  above 
human  existence  and  human  needs,  against 
the  development  of  even  so  fine  an  ideal  as 
patriotism,  when  it  is  turned  into  mass  mur- 
der, country-wide  arson,  the  despoiling  of 
the  living  and  the  mortgaging  of  the  future 
of  the  unborn. 

As  the  educated  man,  the  enlightened 
man  protested  against  a  religion  which  de- 
manded the  blood  of  children  and  the  sacri- 
fice of  virgins  to  appease  its  God,  so  he  must 
now  protest  against  a  patriotism  whose  sub- 
limest  rite  consists  in  the  ruthless  taking  and 
giving  up  of  life,  and  in  drenching  its  altars 
in  human  blood.  As  we  have  dethroned  the 
God  who  was  Baal,  so  we  hope  to  do  away 
with  a  state  which  is  Mars. 

The  American,  if  he  is  truly  educated, 
knows  the  slow,  upward  progress  of  his  race. 
If  he  has  permitted  himself  to  judge  it  by 
the  accelerated  pace  which  the  discovery  of 
steam  and  electricity  has  caused,  he  has 
erred  in  common  with  his  fratres  every- 
where. They  thought  motion  and  progress 
identical ;  but  we  now  know  that  while  we 


Nationalism  59 

have  leaped  forward  materially,  we  have 
inched  along  morally ;  we  can  change  night 
into  day  by  the  turn  of  a  key,  but  in  political 
and  moral  thought  we  are  in  the  flint-and- 
tinder  period. 

It  is  therefore  our  business  to  remove  our- 
selves as  soon  as  possible  from  the  contagion 
of  the  mob,  without  however  losing  touch  with 
our  human  material.  We  must  study  as  if  we 
were  alone,  into  the  nature  of  the  state,  into 
the  obligations  of  citizenship,  and  the  rela- 
tionship among  the  states.  These  are  realms 
of  knowledge  which,  if  not  entirely  neglected, 
are  never  quite  freed  from  an  attitude  of 
mind  which  has  made  clear  conclusions  diffi- 
cult, and  action  upon  them  impossible. 

We  have  gloried  in  our  theological  here- 
sies, have  defied  our  persecutors  and  were 
not  afraid  of  being  burned  at  the  stake  or 
fired  from  our  jobs,  when  we  had  discovered 
truth  and  followed  its  leading.  We  have 
forsaken  the  church  of  our  fathers  when  we 
outgrew  it,  or  when  we  thought  we  had 
outgrown  it. 

We  need  some  such  courageous  attitude 


60  Nationalizing  America 

in  relation  to  the  state,  and  it  will  need  a 
greater  courage  than  ever  was  ours  when  we 
challenged  our  creeds  to  bind  us  and  our 
churches  to  hold  us.  Peace  conventions 
and  Hague  tribunals  are  "carts  before  the 
horse,"  unless  we  have  first  an  attitude  of 
mind,  and  are  ready  to  act  upon  our  con- 
clusions. That  attitude  of  mind  we  must 
have  and  make  contagious. 

The  nation  first,  but  above  the  nation  is 
humanity,  and  above  all  the  nations  is  the 
God  of  the  nations.  It  is  no  small  task  this, 
the  making  of  a  nation,  and  keeping  it  moral, 
so  that  when  the  citizen  repeats  the  slogan  of 
the  day  "  America  First,"  it  may  be  syn- 
onymous with  the  charge  received  from  the 
lips  of  one  who  is  "  King  of  kings  and  Lord 
of  lords  "  :  And  "  seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom 
of  God  and  His  righteousness." 


Ill 

The  Land  and  the  People 

PRIOR  to  the  war  the  tide  of  tourist 
travel  from  Europe  had  turned  towards 
the  United  States.  Increasing  num- 
bers of  wealthy  Germans,  Frenchmen,  and 
Italians,  not  to  say  Englishmen  (who  were 
always  coming),  were  attracted  by  this  land, 
virgin  to  tourists'  feet.  They  were  growing 
so  noticeable  that  many  of  the  New  York 
hotels  employed  specially  trained  men,  of  the 
courier  type,  so  familiar  to  those  of  us  who 
could  afford  such  dignified  luxuries  when  we 
went  to  Europe. 

Some  of  the  travellers  knew  enough  not  to 
expect  to  see  Indians  wigwamed  on  Broad- 
way, so  were  not  disappointed  when  instead, 
they  found  the  children  of  Israel  clogging 
that  thoroughfare.  Others  who  expected  to 
find  our  business  architecture  offensive  to 
their  discriminating  eyes,  were  astonished 

and    sometimes    pleased    to   find   our  sky- 
61 


62  Nationalizing  America 

scrapers  merely  elongated  campaniles,  Greek 
temples  walking  on  stilts,  and  Gothic  cathe- 
drals with  thousands  of  confessionals,  used 
for  the  accumulation  of  money  and  not  for 
absolution  from  sin. 

The  real  surprise,  however,  awaited  those 
who  expected  New  York  to  be  a  patchwork 
reproduction  of  Europe,  like  a  glaring  crazy- 
quilt,  each  patch  bearing  the  autograph  of 
some  loving  friend  or  parishioner ;  the  kind 
which  Ladies'  Aid  Societies  bestow  upon  their 
pastor's  wife  as  a  token  of  appreciation  and 
a  means  of  raising  the  church  debt. 

If  the  courier  knew  his  business,  he  took 
the  strangers  in  the  evening  over  to  the  East 
Side,  down  the  Bowery,  which  place  they 
found  in  sackcloth  and  ashes  over  its  dis- 
solute past,  and  yearning  for  a  new  name  ; 
to  Chinatown,  daily  growing  smaller  and 
kept  intact  for  revenue  only  ;  to  the  Italian 
quarters  where  bananas  and  garlic,  spaghetti 
and  apple-pie,  the  hurdy  gurdy  and  the 
phonograph  are  struggling  for  a  place  under 
the  American  Sun. 

To    the    Ghetto   without   fail;    its    street 


The  Land  and  the  People          6  3 

markets,  its  constant  struggle  against  pov- 
erty, its  libraries,  settlements  and  public 
schools ;  its  synagogues  and  its  many  chil- 
dren. 

While  no  doubt  they  saw  the  patches, 
they  were  amazed  to  find  them  fading,  blend- 
ing into  each  other  or  taking  on  strange, 
new  hues ;  and  as  for  the  autographs  they 
were  growing  illegible. 

The  sum  total  of  the  experience  of  the 
tourist  in  New  York,  whether  he  be  discern- 
ing or  not,  is  that  he  has  been  in  an  American 
city,  which,  while  vast  and  bewildering,  sur- 
prising and  disappointing,  is  an  American 
city  nevertheless. 

The  European  who  has  watched  the  grad- 
ual removal  of  vast  masses  of  people  from 
the  Old  World,  those  reluctant,  conservative 
peasants  who  clung  to  their  dialects  and 
their  distinctive  garb  so  tenaciously,  expects 
to  find  this  country  a  mass  of  these  patches, 
a  hodgepodge  of  people  with  no  possible 
points  of  contact,  no  common  traditions, 
ideals  or  language. 

Realizing  the  long  years  necessary  to  in- 


64  Nationalizing  America 

fuse  people  with  the  national  spirit,  even 
where  they  have  the  factors  of  race  and  lan- 
guage in  their  favor,  he  certainly  does  not 
expect  to  find  a  nation.  Sir  James  Bryce 
thought  the  American  people  themselves 
loath  to  admit  that  they  are  a  nation,  though 
he  discovered  among  them  a  demonstrative 
patriotism,  which  had  no  equal  in  England. 
Our  patriotism  centers  around  a  symbol, 
rather  than  a  great  national  ideal. 

It  is  but  a  few  years  since  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  at  its  Triennial  Convention 
was  revising  its  liturgy.  The  proposal  made 
and  accepted  was  to  insert  a  short  prayer  for 
the  whole  people,  and  the  words  suggested 
were :  "  O  Lord,  bless  our  nation."  Upon 
more  careful  consideration,  however,  and 
after  much  discussion,  the  convention 
adopted,  instead,  the  words  :  "  O  Lord,  bless 
these  United  States." 

Mr.  Maurice  Low  quotes  that  incident  as  a 
proof  of  our  own  lack  of  confidence  in  the 
fact  that  we  are  a  nation ;  that  is  a  people, 
"  which  a  proper  history  has  made  one  and 
distinct  from  all  others." 


The  Land  and  the  People          65 

That  skepticism  which  had  grown  less  in 
these  latter  years  has  been  revived  by  the 
great  war,  an  event  which  is  compelling  us 
to  re-appraise  all  our  political  and  spiritual 
possessions.  There  can  be  but  little  doubt 
that  we  are  a  great  political  unit,  more  uni- 
form, more  united  than  any  of  the  European 
states  prior  to  the  war.  It  is  a  fact  which  is 
startling  to  the  European,  but  seemingly  of 
no  great  import  to  us  who  are  now  in  this 
questioning  mood. 

The  German  Empire  has  rifts  in  it  which 
are  historical,  religious,  even  linguistic ;  and 
some  of  them  an  unsuccessful  war  may 
widen  to  dangerous  proportions.  Its  large 
and  carefully  organized  Social  Democratic 
party,  while  disrupted  by  the  war,  may  prove 
dangerous  to  the  accepted  national  policy  if 
not  to  the  monarchy  itself. 

The  Centrist  Party  is  a  political  force  united 
and  guided  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
and  what  its  attitude  might  be  towards  a 
government  avowedly  Protestant  and  lead- 
ing it  to  defeat,  is  an  open  question. 

The  Poles  may  prove  a  sharper  thorn  in 


66  Nationalizing  America 

the  flesh  than  they  have  always  been,  and 
Alsace-Lorraine  will  remain  a  bone  of  con- 
tention unless  the  war  permanently  settles  its 
status,  which  is  doubtful. 

Austria-Hungary  was  so  precarious  a  polit- 
ical unit  that  its  dissolution  was  expected  in 
the  event  of  the  death  of  Francis  Joseph. 

In  France,  monarchy  is  slumbering,  and  a 
great  national  crisis  may  bring  swift  changes 
in  a  country  where  forms  of  government  have 
already  changed  frequently. 

England  faces  Irish  revolt  as  well  as  In- 
dian discontent,  and  her  faithful  colonies  will 
doubtless  ask  for  a  larger  share  in  determin- 
ing the  empire's  foreign  policy. 

In  Italy  and  Spain  kings  are  none  too  se- 
cure in  the  possession  of  their  thrones. 

There  is  no  such  political  rift  in  the  United 
States,  although  the  original  colonies  were 
rooted  in  foreign  soil ;  their  people  came  with 
different  traditions,  language  and  religion ; 
their  states  were  carved  out  of  territories 
at  least  climatically  and  economically  unlike, 
and  maintained  their  own  capitals  and  gov- 
ernors. 


The  Land  and  the  People          67 

In  spite  of  all  this,  there  is  no  fear  that  we 
shall  change  our  form  of  government  or  that 
we  shall  be  anything  else,  even  a  hundred  or 
more  years  from  now,  than  the  United  States 
of  America.  We  are  so  united  politically 
that  we  have  faced  presidential  elections 
with  platforms  so  essentially  alike,  with  party 
slogans  so  much  the  same,  that  candidates 
were  puzzled  to  find  issues  upon  which  to 
divide  us. 

In  these  days  when  we  are  questioning  the 
efficacy  of  democracy,  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  as  a  political  institution  the  United 
States  is  as  remarkable  as  it  is  secure,  and  it 
is  not  likely  that  this  could  have  been  achieved 
by  an  autocracy,  no  matter  how  benevolent 
or  efficient.  To  reach  such  results  under  a 
democracy  presupposes  a  strong,  moulding, 
compelling,  national  spirit,  which,  though 
we  have  not  defined  it,  has  been  oper- 
ative. 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  have  retained 
this  national  spirit  in  spite  of  a  civil  war 
waged  through  long  and  bitter  years,  and  to 
intensify  it  in  spite  of  the  presence  of  millions 


68  Nationalizing  America 

of  black  men,  who  were  brought  from  the 
worst  savagery  of  the  dark  continent,  and  are 
in  some  sections  so  numerically  superior  as 
to  have  easily  made  the  return  to  barbarism 
possible  for  both  white  and  black. 

To  be  able  to  retain  language,  customs, 
habits  and  ideals  practically  unchanged,  al- 
though there  has  been  annually  an  influx  of  a 
million  people  who  came  with  foreign  speech 
and  alien  ways,  seems  almost  a  miracle,  leav- 
ing their  Americanization  out  of  the  question. 
I  grant  readily  that  we  have  not  assimilated 
many  of  the  immigrants  who  have  come  to 
us  in  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  that 
some  of  them  may  never  be  assimilated.  It 
is  equally  true,  however,  that  they  have  no- 
where weakened  or  lowered  our  ideals,  cor- 
rupted our  manners,  impaired  our  national 
consciousness,  or  have  they  assimilated  a 
single  American,  no  matter  how  great  their 
numbers. 

We  may  still  have  German- Americans,  and 
Italian-Americans  ;  but  I  have  never  met  an 
American-German,  an  American-Frenchman, 
nor  an  American-Italian ;  unless  it  be  those 


The  Land  and  the  People          69 

of  our  countrymen  who  expatriated  them- 
selves and  were  living  abroad,  maintaining 
their  connection  with  the  homeland  through 
their  bankers  only.  If  we  admit  that  we 
have  not  influenced  the  immigrant  it  is  a 
poor  compliment  to  a  civilization  which  we 
have  been  willing  to  carry  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  and  which  we  have  been  proud  to  call 
a  Christian  Civilization. 

We  have  without  doubt  some  of  the  ele- 
ments necessary  to  the  making  of  a  nation. 

We  are  in  possession  of  the  land  over 
which  we  have  sole  sovereignty.  Our  own- 
ership is  unchallenged,  and  so  secure  are  we 
in  it  that  we  are  exercising  gratuitous  vigi- 
lance over  the  whole  continent  through  the 
Monroe  doctrine.  It  is  not  even  a  slip  of  pa- 
per, but  more  than  once  have  we  been  ready 
to  back  it  by  the  sword. 

Neither  the  vastness  nor  the  beauty  of  the 
land  has  as  yet  stirred  our  imagination. 
Neither  the  Hudson,  a  matchless  stream,  nor 
the  Mississippi  has  moved  us  much  towards 
the  making  of  lyrics  ;  not  to  speak  of  the 
willful  Missouri,  or  the  Skunk  and  the  Rao 


70  Nationalizing  America 

coon  Rivers,  one  of  which  nearly  each  state  in 
the  Union  boasts,  and  whose  names  suggest 
malodor  but  not  melody.  We  have  been  so 
occupied  in  tilling  the  land  and  toiling  over 
it,  in  buying  and  selling  it,  that  we  have 
developed  only  one  idealist :  the  real  estate 
agent.  He  has  slightly  overdone  the  thing, 
and  his  notes  are  not  singable. 

Some  time  ago  I  was  present  at  a  teachers' 
convention  in  a  western  state.  The  Daugh- 
ters of  the  American  Revolution,  a  society 
which  has  taken  over  the  guardianship  of 
our  patriotism,  presented  a  state  flag,  a 
brand  new  flag,  the  meaning  of  its  colors 
conceived  in  the  fervid  atmosphere  of  that 
historic  society.  They  stood  for  coal,  oil, 
metals  ;  for  grain  and  alfalfa,  the  symbols  of 
barter  and  trade.  No  one  in  the  great  as- 
sembly rose  to  greet  that  new-born  flag  ;  for 
patriotism  is  not  easily  stirred  by  wealth, 
especially  when,  as  was  true  in  this  case, 
most  of  it  belonged  to  one  well  or  ill  known 
trust. 

I  do  not  know  a  country  in  Europe  which 
can  boast  of  such  varied  and  inspiring  seen- 


The  Land  and  the  People          71 

ery  as  the  state  of  New  York ;  but  until  now 
the  Hudson  and  Lake  George,  Lake  Mo- 
honk,  Niagara,  the  Catskills  and  the  Adi- 
rondacks  await  the  voice  which  will  sing 
them  into  national  appreciation.  It  may 
take  more  legends  and  more  battle-fields  to 
stir  that  latent  imagination ;  but  why  should 
it  be  necessary  to  await  them?  The  mag- 
nificent adventure  of  Christopher  Colum- 
bus, the  winning  of  the  land,  as  if  it  were  the 
lifting  of  a  continent  out  of  the  ocean ;  the 
sudden  disclosure  of  a  new  world  to  the  Old 
World,  weary,  plague  stricken  and  poverty 
ridden,  give  material  for  our  imagination 
such  as  the  people  of  no  other  continent  ever 
had. 

This  land  was  kept  hidden,  until  in  the 
fullness  of  time  it  was  revealed,  virgin,  clean 
from  the  sins  and  the  curse  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah.  It  yielded  infinitely  more  than 
it  promised  of  corn  and  wine,  of  silver  and 
gold ;  and  all  the  fabled  wealth  of  the  Indies 
is  like  ragged  beggary  before  the  yet  un- 
garnered  treasure  of  America. 

Hither,  God-led  pilgrims  came  with  Bible, 


72  Nationalizing  America 

cassock  and  cross.  They  pushed  aside  the 
wilderness  and  looked  upon  the  face  of  great 
waters ;  they  lighted  their  "  ghostly  camp- 
fires  "  by  the  shores,  and  round  the  altars 
thus  reared  they  knelt,  asking  the  divine 
guidance  upon  their  stern  errand. 

"  Aye,  call  it  holy  ground,  the  soil  on  which 
they  trod." 

Nor  were  they  the  last  of  those  who  made 
the  land  ours,  and  sacred  by  the  spirit  in 
which  they  won  it  for  us. 

Pennsylvania  suggests  a  state  where  they 
"  dig  coal,  and  steel  for  a  living,"  as  some 
facetious  man  remarked.  It  does  not  sug- 
gest, as  it  should,  the  land  of  William  Penn, 
his  greatness  and  that  of  the  people  he  gath- 
ered around  him ;  their  quiet  and  noble 
ways,  their  toil,  and  their  faith.  It  became 
the  haven  of  the  oppressed,  and  there  none 
asked  how  they  worshipped  God.  Those  of 
us  who  enjoy  religious  liberty  but  know  not 
its  value  or  the  source  from  which  it  springs, 
need  to  be  reminded  that  Pennsylvania  has 
yielded  us  more  than  anthracite  and  coke, 
more  than  the  Steel  Trust,  and  Standard 


The  Land  and  the  People          73 

Oil.  We  need  to  remember  that  upon  its 
soil  stands  Independence  Hall,  and  that  there, 
eager  listeners  heard  the  glad  tones  of  the 
bell  which  announced  the  birthday  of  a  new 
nation  conceived  in  Liberty. 

Flowing  through  Fairmount  Park  in  Phil- 
adelphia is  a  thin  stream  with  the  musical 
name  Wissahickon.  Swifter  now  than  its 
waters,  and  as  ceaseless,  is  the  procession  of 
automobiles,  moving  over  a  splendid  boule- 
vard, which  follows  the  shores  where  are  man- 
sions, finer  than  many  of  those  which  shelter 
royalty.  Here  more  zealously  than  the  un- 
initiated know,  they  guard  traditions ;  their 
pride  is  a  family  pride,  and  is  after  all  only 
a  question  of  the  number  of  ancestors  they 
can  boast.  The  ancestral  names  are  kept  as 
a  social  asset  to  be  handed  down  to  their 
children  with  their  dowry.  That  this  shore 
has  national  value,  enough  stimulus  to  make 
of  Philadelphia  something  that  the  name 
suggests,  and  not  what  it  now  is,  many  of 
them  do  not  know. 

Upon  these  shores,  less  than  three  hun- 
dred years  ago  settled  a  goodly  number 


74  Nationalizing  America 

of  Germans  whose  Mayflower  was  appropri- 
ately named  the  Concord.  Upon  their  es- 
cutcheon they  carved  for  themselves  the 
words  which  suggested  their  industry : 
"  Linum,  Vinum  et  Textrinum"  They 
planted  not  only  flax  and  grape,  and  spun 
linen  ;  they  manufactured  paper  and  printed 
as  their  first  book  the  great  Book,  the  Bible, 
out  of  which  they  had  drawn  the  ideals  for 
their  new  commonwealth.  But  that  which 
makes  them  still  more  remarkable  is  that 
in  1688  they  took  action  against  the  keep- 
ing and  selling  of  slaves ;  although  more 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  elapsed  and 
a  great  civil  war  was  waged  before  their  early 
protest  became  effective  among  a  Christian 
people. 

Yes,  this  too  is  "  holy  ground,"  this  state 
of  Pennsylvania.  In  spite  of  the  poisoning 
of  its  forest  trees,  the  pollution  of  its  marvel- 
lous streams,  the  scarring  and  marring  of  the 
fair  earth  and  the  bright  sky  obscured  by 
thick  smoke ;  in  spite  of  the  ruthless  exploi- 
tation of  men  and  the  children  of  men,  in 
spite  of  the  political  corruption  which  has 


The  Land  and  the  People          75 

grown  around  hallowed  spots — it  is  "  holy 
ground "  still.  Holy  because  there  are 
buried  the  heroes  of  our  industrial  struggle  ; 
men,  mangled  in  the  mills,  scalded  by  steam 
and  burned  by  the  furnaces,  blown  to  pieces 
by  frightful  explosions.  There  is  scarcely  a 
spot  along  those  highways  strewn  by  steel 
rails,  lighted  by  lurid  plants  shining  against 
the  murky  sky  above,  and  reflected  in  the 
murkier  rivers  beneath,  which  is  not  thus 
hallowed  by  these  noble  sacrifices  of  which 
an  ungrateful  people  has  as  yet  remained 
unconscious. 

Some  day,  and  some  day  soon,  we  shall 
place  beside  the  heroic  figure  of  the  Teutonic 
plowman,  which  we  are  putting  upon  monu- 
mental pedestals,  another  figure — that  of 
the  Celt,  the  Slav,  the  Latin  ;  the  miners,  and 
the  melters  of  metals,  co-founders  of  a  great 
commonwealth,  the  enrichers  of  a  nation. 

All  round  the  edges  of  this  far-reaching 
land,  in  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  Florida, 
California,  Missouri,  and  Michigan ;  all 
through  the  heart  of  our  beloved  country, 
in  Ohio,  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Kansas,  we  must 


j6  Nationalizing  America 

discover  for  ourselves  the  Holy  Ground — 
and  if  we  do  not  find  it  and  find  it  soon,  the 
future  will  have  just  reason  to  indict  us  for 
coarse  materialism. 

I  never  see  those  heart-breaking  forests  or 
what  once  were  forests  in  Wisconsin  and 
Michigan,  those  melancholy  tangles  of  rot- 
ting timber  and  confusing  undergrowth,  with- 
out reverently  lifting  my  hat  to  the  brave 
men  and  women,  who  are  now  clearing  what 
the  lumber  magnates  have  left  them,  and  are 
building  human  habitations  amid  that  wreck- 
age of  forests. 

Some  time  ago  as  I  travelled  through  the 
sandhills  of  western  Nebraska  in  a  luxuri- 
ously cushioned  automobile,  we  passed  a 
dugout  at  sunset.  The  farmer  was  still 
coaxing  the  sand  to  nourish  the  corn  he  had 
entrusted  to  it,  that  it  might  bring  forth  a 
hundred-fold.  His  wife  stood  in  the  door- 
way attracted  by  the  noise  of  our  car,  which 
had  disturbed  the  silence  about  her.  We 
stopped  and  chatted  with  her,  and  looked 
into  the  one  room  in  which  she  was  rearing 
an  American  family  in  cleanliness,  where 


The  Land  and  the  People          77 

water  was  the  scarcest  commodity ;  in  God- 
liness with  no  one  but  God  to  watch  her  con- 
duct ;  intelligently,  for  there  were  books  and 
magazines ;  and  with  hope  and  faith,  al- 
though the  drought  had  parched  the  harvest 
over  and  over  again. 

What  a  story  of  fortitude  and  endurance ; 
how  sacred  this  land  between  the  great 
rivers,  won  from  reluctant  nature  with  a 
courage  surpassing  that  of  the  soldier.  Some 
day  we  shall  know  how  to  love  this  land, 
gained  for  us  by  the  "  Man  with  the  Hoe," 
and  how  to  sing  in  some  virile  verse  of  his 
struggle  with  the  wilderness,  the  cactus  and 
sage-brush ;  with  rattlers  and  twisters,  with 
drought  and  flood,  with  the  dark  deep  in 
mine  and  quarry,  with  burning  heat  and 
biting  cold. 

Some  day  we  shall  write  a  new  Epic  to  cele- 
brate the  winning  of  the  land  without  unneces- 
sary bloodshed  ;  yet  not  without  great  sacri- 
fice. While  we  have  no  sentiment  connected 
with  the  land,  with  its  worth  and  its  beauty, 
it  is  none  the  less  sacred  to  us,  and  should  a 
foreign  power  desecrate  it  by  the  touch  of  its 


78  Nationalizing  America 

soldiers'  feet,  no  American  would  rest  until 
the  land  was  again  free,  and  no  sacrifice 
would  be  regarded  too  great  to  make  in  so 
glorious  a  cause. 

We  are  deficient  in  the  second  element 
which  is  usually  regarded  necessary  to  make 
a  nation ;  we  are  not  of  one  blood.  One  of 
the  most  startling  things  which  belongs  to 
the  daily  experiences  of  my  profession,  yet  is 
a  constant  surprise,  is  the  meeting  in  some 
small  compass  of  a  village  or  town,  the  large 
variety  of  peoples  gathered  from  all  the  cor- 
ners of  the  earth.  From  the  lecture  platform 
I  have  the  opportunity  of  looking  into  the 
faces  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people, 
and  ethnically  it  means  looking  into  the  face 
of  the  whole  world. 

In  delivering  a  commencement  address  in 
the  city  of  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  I  said  that 
there  were  eight  races  or  nationalities  repre- 
sented in  the  class,  which  numbered  forty 
members.  When  I  finished,  the  dean  of 
women  smiled  at  me  and  said  :  "  This  is  one 
time  when  you  are  mistaken."  It  might 
have  been  a  mistake  to  guess  so  many ;  for 


The  Land  and  the  People          79 

that  college  is  under  the  auspices  of  a  de- 
nomination whose  membership  is  made  up 
largely  from  among  English  speaking  peo- 
ples. However,  as  the  members  of  the  class 
ascended  the  rostrum  to  receive  their  diplomas, 
the  dean  counted  fourteen  distinct  races, 
ranging  through  Asia,  Africa,  and  Southern 
and  Northern  Europe. 

The  president  of  the  State  Normal  School 
at  Mankato,  Minnesota,  told  me  that  recently 
the  superintendent  of  a  school  came  to  select 
a  teacher,  and  of  six  candidates  who  applied 
for  the  position,  each  one  represented  a  dif- 
ferent nationality. 

In  Chicago  in  the  primary  room  of  one  of 
the  public  schools  I  found  twenty-four  na- 
tionalities among  some  forty  children.  On 
one  occasion  a  group  of  ten,  representing 
seven  different  strains,  came  to  me  to  avow 
their  Americanism,  after  I  had  spoken  upon 
that  subject. 

At  a  gathering  where  Colonel  Roosevelt 
played  the  host,  this  subject  came  under  dis- 
cussion, and  he,  who  embodies  our  Amer- 
ican ideals  of  the  more  active  if  not  violent 


80  Nationalizing  America 

type,  confessed  to  five  or  six  blood  strains, 
all  of  them  leading  back  to  fighting  an- 
cestors, which  may  explain — but  does  not 
excuse  

An  American  scholar,  well  known  in  the 
field  of  archaeology,  told  me  of  his  descent 
from  eight  sources.  He  boasted  of  Polish, 
Italian,  French,  Danish,  Swiss,  Spanish,  and 
Jewish  blood.  The  eighth  part  he  said  was 
American,  pure  American.  It  was  Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch. 

Being  in  contact  as  I  constantly  am  with 
schools  and  colleges,  it  is  a  delight  to  see  the 
children  of  the  younger  groups  of  immigrants 
coming  up  out  of  steerage  and  mine,  into 
the  upper  ranges  of  our  life.  At  Harvard  and 
Yale,  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
at  Columbia,  I  have  found  liberal  sprinklings 
of  Lithuanians,  Poles,  Slovaks,  Italians,  and 
Jews ;  the  last  named  being  there  in  such 
large  numbers  as  to  develop  the  usual  race 
antagonism. 

In  spite  of  the  rising  doubt  in  our  minds 
as  to  whether  we  can  weld  into  a  nation  such 
divergent  material,  in  spite  of  the  fearful  and 


The  Land  and  the  People          8 1 

wonderful  mixture  which  many  of  us  repre- 
sent, in  spite  of  the  survival  of  racial  sym- 
pathies, and  love  for  the  homeland,  we  are 
being  made  into  a  common  likeness,  even 
physically. 

Some  of  us  may  err  in  believing  that  the 
process  is  taking  place  as  swiftly  as  we  think, 
and  we  may  be  too  optimistic  as  to  the 
result ;  others  may  be  too  pessimistic,  and 
point  to  the  thousands  of  years  which  were 
necessary  to  make  one  people  out  of  the 
overlapping  layers  of  those  who  wandered 
to  the  British  Isles  or  conquered  them.  It  is 
well  to  have  our  enthusiasm  checked  ;  but  it 
is  equally  necessary  to  consider  the  entirely 
different  conditions  under  which  the  making 
of  America  is  taking  place. 

It  is  not  by  conquering  armies  which  are 
coming,  the  stronger  mastering  the  weaker ; 
it  is  not  the  concerted  action  of  vast  masses 
impelled  by  a  common  impulse,  and  all 
moving  to  one  place.  It  is  the  slow  infiltra- 
tion of  races  which,  whether  stronger  or 
weaker,  come  among  virile  people,  who  think 
themselves  superior,  and  behave  accordingly. 


82  Nationalizing  America 

Their  physical  type  is  the  determining  type, 
shaped  as  much  by  climate,  food  and  the 
conditions  under  which  they  work,  as  by 
heredity. 

That  the  men  of  the  colonies,  the  founders 
of  the  nation,  could  separate  themselves 
from  the  motherland  without  feeling  great 
remorse  or  homesickness,  was  made  possible 
by  the  fact  that  the  colonists  were  no  longer 
Englishmen  although  they  spoke  the  English 
tongue  and  were  nourished  by  English  tra- 
ditions. 

A  new  race  was  born  here,  revitalized  by 
the  ozone-laden  air,  reshaped  by  the  new 
environment,  reinforced  by  the  new  experi- 
ences. Another  race  met  English  soldiers 
upon  Concord  field ;  not  Englishmen  fight- 
ing Englishmen,  but  Americans,  a  new  and 
distinct  people,  with  new  and  vital  ideas 
about  society,  religion,  and  the  state;  ideas 
vital  enough  to  make  of  them  a  new  nation. 

In  time  they  have  grown  as  different  from 
their  cousins  across  the  sea  as  the  caricatures 
of  Uncle  Sam  and  John  Bull  suggest.  In 
spite  of  German,  French  and  Irish  admix- 


The  Land  and  the  People          8  3 

tures,  in  spite  of  the  newer  strains  destined 
to  come  into  the  racial  stream,  we  are  in  no 
danger  of  looking  like  Kaiser  Wilhelm  or 
Napoleon,  or  even  Moses,  however  he  may 
have  looked.  Nor  are  we  likely  to  resemble 
Uncle  Sam ;  for  he  was  begotten  in  more 
strenuous  days  ;  he  was  cradled  in  the  wilder- 
ness ;  he  was  rocked  to  sleep  by  the  jolting 
of  the  prairie  schooner  and  was  fed  upon 
hominy  and  pork  with  liberal  portions  of 
beans.  His  sinuous  frame  came  from  swing- 
ing the  scythe  and  the  axe,  and  he  ate  apple 
pie  for  breakfast,  which  may  have  given  him 
that  dyspeptic  appearance. 

What  we  shall  look  like  racially,  begot- 
ten in  crowded  tenements,  or  in  luxuriant 
palaces ;  travelling  in  automobiles,  or  trun- 
dling wheelbarrows  ;  swinging  golf  clubs  or 
the  pickaxe  for  ten  long  hours,  we  may  not 
be  able  to  tell.  Some  say  that  we  shall  be  a 
mongrel  people,  hideous  to  look  upon,  losing 
all  our  strong,  racial  inheritances. 

It  is  possible  that  we  shall  develop  a  nation 
made  up  of  two  or  three  races,  in  which  the 
superior,  older  stock  shall  be  the  aristocrats, 


84  Nationalizing  America 

and  the  weaker  white  aliens  shall  degenerate 
into  a  low  type  of  peasantry  ;  with  the  cruder 
colored  element  remaining  upon  a  still 
lower  plane.  That  has  happened  in  some 
countries  ;  but  even  where  it  has  happened  it 
has  not  weakened  the  national  ideal. 

Some  such  thing  has  taken  place  in 
Poland,  and  while  as  a  nation  it  proved  itself 
weak,  the  cause  of  its  weakness  was  not  the 
possible  racial  difference  but  the  growing 
class  difference  ;  it  was  the  exploited  peasant, 
unable  to  see  national  glory  when  his 
stomach  was  empty,  unwilling  to  fight  for 
national  unity  when  he  had  been  cut  off  from 
his  economic  and  social  reward.  Through 
him  came  this  weakness,  and  the  blame  is 
not  his  alone.  Nations  never  learn  from 
history,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  we  shall  see 
the  "  handwriting  on  the  wall  "  until  it  is  too 
late. 

Frankly  I  do  not  know  what  we  shall  look 
like  in  the  future,  nor  do  I  think  it  matters 
much.  I  am  concerned,  desperately  con- 
cerned, as  to  what  we  shall  be  like. 

I  do  not  know  what  will  happen  as  a  re- 


The  Land  and  the  People          8  5 

suit  of  the  infusion  of  these  varied  strains  of 
blood  into  our  national  body ;  I  do  not  know 
what  will  happen  when  Slav  and  Latin  and 
Jew  shall  have  mingled  their  blood  with  that 
of  our  children. 

I  read  with  keen  interest  all  that  has 
been  written  ;  I  am  watching  the  present  and 
know  something  of  the  past.  The  only 
thing  I  can  say  dogmatically  is,  that  I  do  not 
know,  and  may  I  add  just  as  dogmatically, 
nobody  knows. 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  future  of  a  nation 
is  written  in  the  land  it  occupies  or  in  the 
language  it  speaks,  or  in  the  tradition  it  in- 
herits ;  its  future  lies  written  in  its  will. 

Have  we  a  national  will,  a  determination 
to  make  this  country  something  more  than  a 
land  of  big  cities,  of  big  and  bigger  sky- 
scrapers, of  big  and  bigger  and  biggest 
booms  ? 

What  is  this  nation  to  be  ?  Do  we  know, 
and  if  we  know,  are  we  doing  anything  to 
make  that  national  will  articulate  and  ef- 
fective ? 

What  are  the  patriotic  women  of  America 


86  Nationalizing  America 

doing  besides  preserving  the  past  and  keep- 
ing afloat  a  symbol  ?  What  are  they  doing 
for  the  women  who  are  to  be  the  mothers  of 
the  next  generation,  who  are  being  drained 
of  their  vitality  in  the  shops,  and  robbed  of 
their  virtue  by  the  very  men  who  exploit 
their  physical  power  ? 

What  are  the  patriotic  men  of  America 
doing  for  our  youth  upon  the  city  streets, 
what  are  they  permitting  their  eyes  to  see 
and  their  young  ears  to  hear,  in  the  roar  of 
our  traffic  and  in  the  selfish  atmosphere  of 
our  merchandising  ? 

The  past  is  after  all  secure ;  the  battles  of 
Lexington  and  Concord  have  been  fought, 
the  debt  we  owe  to  our  ancestors  will  not  be 
forgotten.  Their  names  are  safely  enshrined 
upon  the  pages  of  history. 

What  are  the  business  men  doing  to  make 
that  will  effective?  Is  it  well  that  they 
should  work  for  the  to-day  only  ? 

Is  it  enough  to  keep  busy  in  their  marts 
and  build  treasure  houses  in  which  to  store 
their  gains  ?  Is  it  enough  to  have  amassed 
wealth  for  their  children  ? 


The  Land  and  the  People          87 

The  to-day  is  not  endangered ;  for  they 
have  buttressed  it  with  granite  and  ribbed  it 
with  steel.  What  about  the  to-morrow  ? 

Are  these  merchants  the  builders  of  an  en- 
during nation,  or  only  the  builders  of  Baby- 
lon? 

What  have  the  ministers  done  to  bring  the 
will  of  the  nation  in  accord  with  the  will  of 
God  ?  How  loudly  have  they  proclaimed  that 
will,  how  firmly  have  they  held  to  their  faith 
in  the  Kingdom  to  be,  how  valiantly  have 
they  fought  men's  unbelief  in  men  ? 

The  past  is  assured,  the  Bible  is  the  Book 
of  Books,  the  Gospel  is  the  good  news,  till  it 
becomes  better  news,  by  being  practiced  as 
well  as  preached. 

"A  great  nation's  will,  makes  a  nation's 
destiny,"  says  H.  G.  Wells.  "  What  are  we 
doing,"  he  asks,  "to  make  this  destiny  of 
which  we  feel  ourselves  a  part?" 

What  shall  we  be?  That  which  we  want 
America  to  be,  and  determine  it  to  be. 

I  am  watching  this  process  of  a  nation's 
being  made  here  in  this  fair  land.  I  watch 
it  with  a  love  which  admits  of  no  cheap  op- 


88  Nationalizing  America 

timism,  but  which  also  repudiates  a  cheaper 
pessimism  based  upon  prejudice  and  igno- 
rance. I  have  put  my  will  behind  my  wish,  a 
wish  which  centers  its  hopes  upon  no  mere 
fancy  or  impossible  Utopia ;  a  wish  which  I 
have  found  in  the  heart  of  all  good  men  every- 
where, and  a  will  which  I  am  trying  to  bring 
into  harmony  with  the  will  of  God. 

I  do  not  know  about  the  future.  I  do  not 
know  what  we  shall  look  like.  This  I  can 
say :  No  matter  what  we  shall  look  like  in 
the  time  to  come — if  in  our  day  we  are  wise, 
and  are  guided  by  that  wisdom ;  if  we  are 
just,  and  see  that  justice  is  done ;  if  we  are 
loyal  to  the  past,  and  open  to  that  guidance 
which  has  led  us  through  the  past — we  shall 
be,  no  matter  what  the  shape  of  our  noses, 
or  the  color  of  our  eyes — we  shall  all  be 
Americans.  And  may  God  grant  that  to  be 
an  American  may,  in  the  future,  mean  some- 
thing better  and  more  significant  than  what 
we  now  understand  it  to  mean. 


IV 

language  and  the  Nation 

WHOEVER  has  travelled  through 
our  foreign  quarters,  whether  in 
the  crowded  cities  or  in  agricul- 
tural colonies,  quickly  discovers  that  nothing 
merely  external  distinguishes  them  from 
other  sections  of  the  city  and  country. 

The  tenement  house  architecture  of  New 
York,  patterned  after  the  beehive,  has  re- 
mained the  same,  even  if  Jewish  or  Italian 
immigrants  have  taken  the  place  of  native 
builders  and  exploiters.  The  replica  of  a 
Chinese  joss-house  was  erected  in  San  Fran- 
cisco after  the  earthquake  or,  as  the  Cali- 
fornians  would  say :  "  After  the  fire ; "  but 
that  was  done  to  satisfy  the  curious  rather 
than  as  a  protest  against  the  indigenous. 

Chop  Suey  restaurants  have  carried  this 
bit  of  Oriental  staging  as  a  background  to 

their  staple   dish    which,   according  to   the 
89 


90  Nationalizing  America 

testimony  of  the  Chinese  themselves,  is 
merely  a  new  kind  of  hash,  originated  and 
brought  to  its  perfection  in  the  United  States. 

Even  in  the  country,  in  agricultural  col- 
onies, we  have  neither  German  nor  Scandi- 
navian dwellings  or  homes,  and  the  Poles 
who  are  building  on  the  deserted  New  Eng- 
land farms,  accept  the  prevailing  architecture 
without  the  slightest  modifications. 

A  closer  social  touch  will  disclose  a  tena- 
cious clinging  to  the  national  foods;  for 
sacred  traditions  are  most  persistently  pre- 
served in  the  kitchen.  The  nostrils,  the 
palate  and  the  stomach  are  more  capable 
than  the  eye,  of  historic  and  national  appeal. 
In  fact  the  stomach  has  the  longest  memory, 
and  those  who  in  the  past  were  concerned 
with  the  preservation  of  national  and  relig- 
ious traditions,  invariably  turned  their  atten- 
tion to  the  bill  of  fare  as  the  most  enduring 
page  of  history. 

The  Passover  meal  of  the  Jews  is  a  history 
written  in  courses  rather  than  in  chapters, 
and  every  Jewish  lad  while  he  digests  it, 
ponders  over  it,  sometimes  painfully.  The 


Language  and  the  Nation          9 1 

Kosher  restaurant  is  more  effective  in  pre- 
serving what  is  left  of  Judaism  than  the 
Synagogue. 

So,  every  exiled  American,  no  matter  how 
far  he  has  wandered,  recalls  his  native  coun- 
try on  Thanksgiving  Day,  by  eating  turkey 
and  cranberry  sauce. 

But  strange  to  say,  after  a  time,  in  these 
United  States,  even  that  appeal  of  the  past 
fails ;  and  the  American  frying  pan  unfortu- 
nately displaces  the  European  pot ;  the  more 
palatable  white  bread  supersedes  the  sub- 
stantial loaf  of  rye — and  the  more  healthful 
kuchen  or  kolatchi  is  displaced  by  the  pie, 
which  crowns  every  American  table  and  im- 
pairs the  national  digestion. 

Some  time  ago  while  visiting  the  Russian- 
German  colony  in  Colorado,  I  was  invited  to 
dinner  by  the  Herr  Pastor  and  his  German 
wife.  My  digestion  had  been  almost  ruined 
by  a  week's  stay  in  one  of  those  American 
hotels,  where  they  murder  food  before  they 
serve  it ;  so  I  joyfully  anticipated  a  revival  of 
my  national  appetite,  if  not  my  national  feel- 
ing. But  alas !  for  my  hopes.  The  dinner, 


92  Nationalizing  America 

while  excellent,  was  purely  American.  It 
consisted  of  fried  chicken,  asparagus  on 
toast,  tomato  salad  and,  horror  of  horrors ! 
my  pet  aversion,  mince  pie. 

The  Herr  Pastor  confessed  that  he  is  never 
so  happy  as  when,  after  dinner,  he  can  put 
his  feet  higher  than  his  head  and  smoke  his 
cigar — which  he  forthwith  proceeded  to  do. 

In  the  ghettos  and  Little  Italy  or  in  the 
persistent  Bohemias,  one  finds  a  more  last- 
ing remnant  of  nationality  in  the  queer  let- 
terings over  the  shops,  and  in  the  unfamiliar 
sounds  which  strike  one's  ear. 

Among  some  of  the  groups  here,  where 
the  struggle  for  the  nation  went  hand  in  hand 
with  the  struggle  for  the  maintenance  of  lan- 
guage, it  is  spoken  with  a  purity  and  sense 
of  defiance  unknown  in  the  homeland.  In 
fact  some  of  the  European  dialects  became 
languages  here,  and  created  for  themselves 
a  literature. 

We  are  almost  incapable  of  appreciating 
these  phenomena,  and  are  more  or  less  im- 
patient with  them  ;  because  English  has  no 
national  background.  It  is,  first  of  all,  a 


Language  and  the  Nation          9  3 

composite  language,  easily  appropriating 
words  from  other  tongues.  Also,  it  long 
ago  overstepped  national  boundaries  by  the 
scattering  of  English-speaking  peoples  and 
by  the  development  of  an  independent  Eng- 
lish-speaking nation  upon  this  continent. 

Even  with  the  ocean  between  us  and  the 
mother  country,  we  have  not  developed  a 
divergent  language,  although,  of  course,  our 
speech  "bewrayeth"  us.  Yet  we  have  no 
different  language,  the  German  papers  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding.  They  insist  that, 
since  the  war,  we  have  begun  to  speak  some- 
thing which  is  called  American. 

Some  of  us  who  have  travelled  abroad  had 
difficulty  in  making  our  way  by  merely 
twisting  our  English,  or  shrieking  it  as  if 
every  one  were  deaf.  We  remember  what  a 
sense  of  security  came  to  us,  what  a  breath 
of  the  homeland  was  wafted  upon  us,  when 
we  heard  some  one  speaking  in  our  own 
tongue,  complaining  perhaps  about  the 
stuffy  air  in  the  compartment.  We  also 
know  what  a  difference  it  made  if  the  Eng- 
lish we  heard  was  spoken  as  it  should  be — 


94  Nationalizing  America 

nasally — rather  than  from  the  top  of  one's 
head,  where  the  English  of  England  is  pro- 
duced. 

The  immigrant  has  come  to  a  country 
which  is  inhospitable  to  all  foreign  languages 
and  which  always,  though  not  officially,  de- 
mands that  he  drop  everything  external 
which  marks  him  apart.  It  is  a  country  in 
which  everything  takes  on  so  quickly  the 
native  color  and  tone,  even  morals  and  re- 
ligion, that  language  becomes  a  sort  of 
precious  relic  of  the  past,  a  kind  of  sheet 
anchor  against  the  submerging  storm.  All 
the  sentiments  which  gather  around  the 
home  and  the  church  are  embodied  here, 
and  when  they  are  expressed  in  a  different 
language  they  seem  to  change  their  very 
nature,  or  fail  in  making  their  full  appeal. 

Brand  Whitlock,  whose  autobiography 
should  be  read  by  every  American,  tells 
this  story  of  the  last  days  of  "  Golden  Rule 
Jones,"  the  mayor  of  Toledo,  and  Mr.  Whit- 
lock's  predecessor  in  the  office.  Mr.  Jones 
so  firmly  believed  in  the  Christian  religion 
that  he  tried  to  govern  a  city  by  it.  He 


Language  and  the  Nation          95 

took  revolvers  and  clubs  from  policemen, 
treated  harlots  and  other  sinners  as  Jesus 
treated  them  two  thousand  years  ago,  and 
as  he  believed  they  ought  to  be  treated  to- 
day. 

His  last  hour  came,  the  last  hour  of  a  life 
saddened  by  the  thought  that  the  enemies 
of  Christ  were  still  they  of  his  "  own  house- 
hold "  ;  for  some  of  the  strongest  opponents 
of  "Golden  Rule  Jones  "  were  Christians  and 
Christian  ministers.  Like  his  Master  he  was 
"  reviled  yet  reviled  not  again."  He  had 
"  fought  the  good  fight "  and  was  finishing 
"  his  course  "  as  he  began  it,  in  the  Christ 
spirit,  and  he  read  out  of  the  New  Testament 
that  matchless  chapter,  written  by  another 
struggler  for  the  Kingdom.  He  read  that 
ringing,  triumphant  chapter  from  the  book 
of  Revelation ;  that  book  which  records  the 
vision  of  one  who  hoped  against  hope  that 
the  city  New  Jerusalem  would  come  down 
out  of  Heaven  among  men,  and  be  set  up 
upon  the  ruins  of  the  harlot  city  Babylon. 
"  Behold  I  come  quickly,"  he  read  ;  "  hold 
fast  that  which  thou  hast,  that  no  one  take 


96  Nationalizing  America 

thy  crown.  He  that  overcometh  ..." 
and  as  he  closed  the  book,  he  said  wearily 
to  his  wife,  "  Say  it  to  me  in  Welsh."  She 
said  it  to  him  in  Welsh,  "He  that  over- 
cometh," and  brighter  than  the  vision  of 
the  New  Jerusalem  there  flashed  upon  him, 
through  the  power  of  his  mother  tongue,  the 
rugged  hills  of  Wales,  his  boyhood  spent  in 
the  mines  and  his  long  struggle  towards  the 
Christian  ideal. 

During  a  stay  in  Colorado,  I  was  attracted 
by  the  Russian-Germans  who  came  to  us  out 
of  their  Russian  habitat,  where  they  have 
lived  over  one  hundred  years,  and  remained 
unchanged  by  their  environment.  If  one 
wishes  to  know  how  the  Germans  spoke 
and  acted,  and  what  they  believed  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  he  must  visit  these 
workers  in  the  beetfields  of  Kansas,  Ne- 
braska, and  Colorado.  He  must  go  very 
soon  though ;  for  in  twenty  years  in  Amer- 
ica, they  have  changed  more  radically  than 
they  would  have  changed  had  they  remained 
in  Russia  for  two  hundred  years  more. 
Strange  to  say,  a  large  number  of  them 


Language  and  the  Nation          97 

has  been  attracted  to  the  Congregational 
Church,  which  ministers  to  them  in  Ger- 
man. 

The  church  I  visited  was  built  recently  at 
a  cost  of  $18,000,  and  is  a  typically  modern 
American  building,  with  Sunday-school 
rooms,  a  kitchen,  and  all  the  other  modern 
equipment  which  seems  so  essential  to  the 
development  of  Protestant  piety  in  America. 
The  only  American  thing  absent  was  a  mort- 
gage. 

This  church  maintains  seven  services  every 
Sunday,  four  of  them  being  prayer  meetings, 
and  all  are  so  crowded  as  to  suggest  a 
Roman  Catholic,  rather  than  a  Protestant 
service.  These  people  possess  a  very  vital 
piety,  perhaps  not  untainted  by  cant ;  yet  it 
is  sincere  on  the  whole,  and  the  church  is  the 
center  of  the  community's  interest. 

I  have  watched  this  colony  for  the  last 
ten  years.  Its  material  growth  is  astonish- 
ing and  its  Americanization  in  most  things 
is  alarmingly  rapid. 

These  people  are  learning  English,  al- 
though during  their  long  exile  in  Russia 


98  Nationalizing  America 

they  learned  but  few  words  of  Russian.  In 
the  church  they  still  treasure  the  mother 
tongue ;  but  in  business  and  in  the  schools 
it  is  nearly  gone.  It  will  die  out  of  the 
church  too ;  but  when  that  time  comes,  I 
fear  there  will  be  no  seven  services  every 
Sunday  and  no  crowds  listening  to  the 
preaching. 

The  influence  of  a  language  upon  the 
thought,  the  habits  and  the  ideals  of  people 
is  unquestionable.  The  immigrant's  use  of 
the  mother  tongue  in  this  country  is  fast 
decreasing  even  where  it  is  most  tenaciously 
treasured.  Very  soon  after  his  arrival  here, 
English  words  creep  in,  and  after  a  year  or 
two  they  appear  in  every  sentence.  Finally 
even  the  form  of  the  sentence  is  changed  and 
curious  are  the  results. 

In  Pennsylvania,  where  the  German  sur- 
vived for  nearly  three  hundred  years,  in  the 
dialect  called  Pennsylvania  Dutch,  it  is  a 
most  unique  mixture  of  English  and  South- 
ern German  which  has  been  left  upon  the 
tongues  of  the  people.  Almost  any  American, 
with  a  little  help  from  the  dictionary,  ca» 


Language  and  the  Nation          99 

read  the  popular  Pennsylvania  Dutch  poem, 
"  Das  alt  Schulhaus  an  der  Krick." 

"  Und  steh'  ein  Schulhaus  an  der  Krick, 
Juscht  nachst  an  Dady's  Haus," 

is  almost  English. 

Most  interesting  are  these  colloquial  Ger- 
man-Americanisms :  "  Die  Cow  ist  iiber  die 
fence  gejumpt,"  "  Wir  werden  moven,"  and 
"  Der  landlord  hatt  die  rent  geraist." 
Whether  it  is  Bohemian  or  Chinese,  Italian 
or  Greek,  it  is  always  corrupted  by  English, 
and  the  persistent  Yiddish  of  the  Ghetto  is 
becoming  daily  more  complicated  by  its  ad- 
mixture. 

If,  then,  language  has  this  power  of  carry- 
ing ideals  or  changing  them,  it  is  undeniably 
true  that  in  a  comparatively  short  time  we 
affect  the  immigrant  groups.  Measured  by 
this  same  standard,  the  immigrants  have  not 
in  the  least  affected  us ;  for  I  do  not  know 
one  single  word  which  has  drifted  into  our 
English  language  from  these  foreign  colonies. 

True,  we  have  "lager  beer"  from  Mil- 
waukee or  St.  Louis  ;  we  have  enriched  our 
culinary  wealth  and  fragrance  by  the  addi- 


ioo          Nationalizing  America 

tion  of  sauerkraut,  "wienies"  and  Frank- 
furters; but  except  as  they  affected  our 
easily  disturbed  digestion,  these  have  not 
directly  affected  our  mental  processes.  Not 
one  word  has  obtruded  itself  permanently 
into  our  intellectual  and  emotional  life. 

In  Philadelphia  they  called  my  attention 
to  the  fact  that  they  speak  of  the  "dumb 
Dutch  "  ;  but  the  word  dumb  meaning  stupid, 
is  not  found  in  any  dictionary,  and  has  not 
moved  far  or  fast. 

This  same  statement  of  mine  was  chal- 
lenged some  time  ago,  by  one  who  cited  the  bit 
of  current  slang  :  "  Ish-ka-bible"  which  came 
to  us  from  the  Yiddish.  Long  before  it  dis- 
appeared, however,  it  was  translated  into  "  I 
should  worry  ; "  so  although  born  in  Yiddish, 
it  attained  its  majority  in  English,  and  for  its 
death,  be  praises. 

Some  future  lexicographer  may  have  a 
task  left  him ;  that  of  tracing  the  new  words 
incorporated  into  our  English  by  immigrant 
groups  ;  but  I  doubt  that  he  will  be  kept 
very  busy. 

Our  Canadian  cousins,  more  English  than 


Language  and  the  Nation        i  o  i 

we,  have  not  been  able  to  assimilate  the 
French  Canadians  they  found.  French,  in 
speech  and  habits  of  thought,  has  remained 
to  this  day  the  source  of  serious  political, 
religious  and  social  friction. 

Canada  has  not  succeeded  much  better 
with  the  later  Slavic  groups,  which,  follow- 
ing the  example  set  them  by  the  French, 
have  demanded  separate  schools,  in  which 
instruction  should  be  in  their  mother  tongue. 

In  the  United  States  we  have  thus  far  been 
spared  any  political  cleavage  through  differ- 
ent languages,  and  while  the  proportion  of 
non-English  speaking  people  is  large,  the 
use  of  their  mother  tongue  daily  grows 
smaller,  languishes  in  the  second  generation 
and  disappears  entirely  in  the  third. 

As  a  result  of  the  great  war,  there  will 
probably  be  on  one  side  a  reawakening  of 
the  national  feeling  and  a  desire  among  our 
immigrants  to  perpetuate  their  native  speech. 

On  our  side  there  may  be  a  feeling  of 
resentment  against  the  survival  of  their 
language  and  an  attempt  to  force  upon  them 
our  speech. 


IO2          Nationalizing  America 

The  moribund  press  of  the  older  immi- 
grant groups  has  been  suddenly  revived,  and 
there  is  a  renewed  vitality  among  such  weak- 
ened institutions  as  churches,  parochial 
schools  and  theaters.  While  the  broken, 
linguistic  bond  with  the  Fatherland  is  being 
strengthened,  societies  are  being  formed  on 
the  American  side  to  force  upon  foreigners 
the  English  speech,  and  by  a  change  of 
tongue,  create  in  them  a  change  of  heart. 
Both  movements  ought  to  be  checked,  for 
each  of  them  may  prove  disastrous  to  our 
national  unity. 

We  may,  or  may  not,  regard  language  as 
essential  to  the  life  of  a  nation  ;  there  are 
examples  for  both  contentions  ;  one  thing  is 
sure.  A  cleavage  in  the  language  now 
would  mean  to  us  a  cleavage  of  the  nation 
in  its  most  vulnerable  if  not  in  its  most 
essential  part.  That,  no  matter  what  our 
origin,  no  real  American  can  desire  ;  for  it  is 
not  a  question  whether  we  are  to  be  part 
German  or  part  English.  We  might  survive 
with  the  national  spirit  cut  in  two ;  but 
should  our  German  born  citizens  be  success- 


Language  and  the  Nation        103 

ful  in  making  German  co-equal  with  English 
in  our  public  schools,  the  Bohemians,  who 
hate  the  very  sound  of  the  German  language, 
will  demand  a  similar  chance  for  the  Czesch 
tongue,  and  they  know  how  to  fight  for  what 
they  want. 

The  Hungarian,  who  equally  dislikes  the 
Czesch,  will  try  to  make  a  place  for  Mag- 
yar as  the  class-room  language,  and  with 
Scandinavian,  Finnish,  Yiddish,  and  other 
languages  clamoring  for  the  same  privilege, 
we  may  at  once  say  good-bye  to  the  unity  of 
the  United  States. 

It  will  be  pertinent  to  translate  here  the 
words  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Archbishop 
Zardetti,  formerly  of  the  diocese  of  St.  Cloud, 
Minnesota.  In  his  book,  "Westlich,"  he 
says :  "  Nevertheless,  the  German  cannot 
exclude  himself  from  the  others,  and  ignore 
the  English  language ;  nor  carry  about  the 
idea  that  he  can  found  here  a  little  Germany, 
Luxemburg  or  Switzerland. 

"  He  should,  if  he  wants  to  realize  his  mis- 
sion, treasure  the  German  language,  and 
cultivate  it,  be  proud  of  his  German  charac- 


104          Nationalizing  America 

ter,  of  his  traditions,  and  of  the  memories  of 
the  Fatherland.  But  he  must  theoretically 
and  practically  acknowledge  the  English 
language  as  the  language  of  America.  He 
must  acknowledge  that  he,  with  his  national 
characteristics,  is  only  a  co-worker  in  this 
great  melting  and  cultural  process,  and  that 
he  is  no  more  in  the  old  Fatherland,  but  in 
the  land  of  the  stars  and  stripes." 

This  was  written  prior  to  the  war — by  a 
German  Archbishop  of  Swiss  birth  ;  and  if  it 
does  not  prove  which  way  the  wind  is  blow- 
ing, it  certainly  proves  the  direction  in  which 
it  ought  to  be  blowing. 

On  the  other  hand  we,  with  our  newly 
awakened  sense  of  the  value  of  language  to 
the  making  of  a  nation,  need  at  this  critical 
time  just  as  forceful  an  injunction. 

The  immigrant  realizes  that  he  needs  to 
know  English.  There  is  no  place  for  him 
here  except  at  the  very  bottom,  unless  he 
does  know  it.  Without  it  he  cannot  com- 
mand better  wages ;  he  cannot  assert  him- 
self in  securing  either  a  job  or  justice.  If  he 
has  any  ambition  to  get  into  social  relation- 


Language  and  the  Nation        105 

ship  with  his  fellows,  he  must  know  the  lan- 
guage of  the  people. 

We  need  adult  schools  wherever  the  immi- 
grants congregate  ;  we  need  them  as  a  matter 
of  security  for  our  institutions.  Nevertheless 
it  is  folly  to  believe  that  this  can  be  accom- 
plished in  the  mood  in  which  we  are  now 
ready  to  begin.  At  present  we  are  in  the 
same  attitude  towards  the  immigrant  as 
were  the  emissaries  of  Emperor  Ferdinand 
of  Austria  towards  the  Protestants  of  Salz- 
burg, when,  driving  them  into  a  lake,  they 
immersed  them  and  said :  "  Be  baptized  or 
be  drowned  and  damned."  The  reciprocal 
feeling  of  the  survivors  may  be  imagined,  and 
it  exists  in  much  of  its  bitterness  to  this  day. 

The  acceptance  of  this  country's  language 
by  the  immigrant  is  essential;  but  it  is  a 
mistake  to  force  it  upon  him.  If  we  do,  be- 
fore we  know  it,  we  shall  duplicate  the  lan- 
guage trouble  of  Austria-Hungary,  which  has 
rendered  the  making  of  a  nation  under  the 
Hapsburghs  all  but  impossible.  Moreover 
we  must  remember  that  while  language  is 
essential  to  our  national  strength,  if  not  to 


106          Nationalizing  America 

our  unity,  it  is  still  more  essential  to  keep 
national  feeling  and  national  ideals  upon  a 
high  level. 

To  learn  English  in  the  saloon  and  brothel, 
to  acquire  it  with  vulgarity  and  a  strong 
leaning  towards  profanity,  is  not  necessarily 
a  saving  process,  and  may  register  no  gain 
for  the  nation. 

To  try  to  teach  English  to  the  immigrant 
under  the  compulsion  of  law  would  also  be 
an  irreparable  mistake,  and  would  inevitably 
create  a  dangerous  reaction ;  while  to  teach, 
or  try  to  teach  it  in  our  present  unsympa- 
thetic mood  and  with  our  leaning  towards 
England,  would  arouse  the  suspicion  that 
we  are  trying  to  make  Englishmen  out  of 
them.  To  make  the  teaching  of  English 
effective,  we  must  first  of  all  treasure  it  as 
our  native  speech,  we  must  realize  its  cul- 
tural and  spiritual  value,  and  speak  it  with 
a  sense  of  national  dignity.  We  must  fight 
against  its  vulgarization  by  our  children,  or 
by  those  whom  they  hear  in  the  theater,  the 
concert  hall,  and  the  schoolroom. 

No  teacher  ought  to  be  employed  in  our 


Language  and  the  Nation        1 07 

schools  who  does  not  speak  English  con- 
tagiously well. 

In  the  curriculum  of  our  colleges  the  study 
of  the  drama,  which  in  this  country  is  so 
marked,  is  meaningless  to  us  as  a  nation 
unless  it  brings  a  revival  of  English  speech. 
The  Greek  drama  must  shame  us  not  only 
by  the  simplicity  of  its  plot  and  the  high 
level  of  its  thought,  but  by  the  dignity  of 
its  language. 

The  Shakespearean  tercentenary  ought  to 
turn  our  attention,  not  so  much  to  play  act- 
ing or  play  making,  but  to  the  refining  of 
our  speech  ;  and  should  shame  us  because  of 
the  poverty  of  our  vocabulary.  Wherever  I 
hear  college  men  and  women  speak  what 
they  call  English,  I  find  myself  in  need  of  a 
new  dictionary. 

I  overheard  the  daughter  of  a  minister 
convey  to  her  classmate  a  bit  of  home  news 
in  the  following  sentences :  "  My  father  has 
just  been  called  to  a  peach  of  a  church  and 
say,  we  have  the  niftiest  parsonage ;  it's  a 
cracker-jack."  No  doubt  she  was  a  "  peach  " 
of  a  college  girl. 


io8          Nationalizing  America 

After  delivering  a  college  commencement 
address,  I  heard  one  of  the  men  just  gradu- 
ated, inquire  of  a  classmate  :  "  Say,  kid,  have 
you  seen  my  lid?  Gosh,  I  must  wiggle. 
The  mater  is  waiting  for  me.  Her  and  the 
old  man  are  probably  rubbering  around  for 
me  now." 

I  am  frequently  in  the  unenviable  position 
of  having  to  be  introduced  to  audiences. 
This  is  done  in  the  majority  of  cases  by  col- 
lege men,  and  their  inability  to  speak  a 
straight,  dignified  English  sentence  is  ap- 
palling. At  a  high-school  commencement, 
the  clergyman  who  was  to  offer  prayer  was 
introduced  by  the  superintendent  in  the  fol- 
lowing sentence,  which  certainly  does  not 
lack  words.  "  Reverend  So  and  So  is  now 
to  invoke  the  divine  invocation  in  prayer  to 
Almighty  God  for  His  blessing." 

The  college  athletic  field  which  has  yielded 
us  so  little  of  national  value,  but  which  might 
have  been  used  to  stimulate  the  imagination 
and  the  beauty  sense  of  the  nation,  has  given 
us  nothing  but  slang  and  savage  sounds. 
Issuing  from  the  throats  of  our  boys  they  are 


Language  and  the  Nation        \  09 

tolerable ;  but  shrieked  by  the  girls  they  act 
disastrously  upon  their  vocal  chords,  and  are 
calculated  neither  to  improve  the  native  voice 
nor  to  enrich  our  speech. 

This  may  be  the  right  time  to  insist  that 
English  be  used  by  our  concert  and  opera 
singers.  In  the  period  of  our  artistic  infancy 
we  were  compelled  to  take  what  we  could 
get ;  but  now,  would  it  be  too  much  to  ask 
that  the  Italians  and  Germans  learn  to  sing 
in  English,  rather  than  that  we  should  com- 
pel our  native  singers  to  learn  foreign 
tongues  and  to  disguise  their  names  into 
something  which  smacks  of  the  Old  World  ? 

To  be  sure  we  might  not  understand 
Caruso's  English  ;  but  do  we  understand  his 
Italian  ?  It  is  also  true  that  we  might  not 
understand  our  American  singers  if  they 
sang  in  English ;  for  most  of  them  are 
afflicted  as  was  the  colored  brakeman  of 
whom  I  asked  the  name  of  the  station  he 
had  just  announced.  "  'Scuse  me,  boss,"  he 
said  ;  "  I's  got  an  epidemic  in  my  speech." 

In  relation  to  the  non-English  speaking 
peoples  among  us,  we  must  realize  that  Ian- 


no          Nationalizing  America 

guage,  like  the  gift  without  the  giver,  is  bare. 
That  is,  if  we  are  to  convey  with  the  lan- 
guage anything  of  the  national  spirit  at  its 
best,  we  must  give  it  through  personal  contact. 

Suppose  that  we  are  living  in  a  town  of 
60,000  inhabitants,  and  that  there  are  two  for- 
eigners to  every  native  (a  very  large  and  un- 
usual proportion),  and  that  each  one  of  us 
proposes  to  touch  the  lives  of  two  of  these  for- 
eigners for  one  or  two  hours  each  week,  and 
try  to  teach  them  English.  Some  such  plan 
has  often  been  followed  for  the  raising  of 
funds  or  the  saving  of  souls ;  now  suppose 
we  try  it  for  the  saving  of  the  nation,  if  we 
think  the  nation  is  in  danger.  In  a  year  we 
can  accomplish  more  than  the  town  or  the 
city  or  the  state  could,  by  the  passing  of  laws 
or  the  appropriation  of  large  sums  of  money, 
and  will  have  taught  more  than  mere  lan- 
guage. 

In  my  "  trailing  of  the  immigrant,"  I  have 
found  that  when  he  returned  to  the  homeland 
the  difference  in  his  view-point  was  made, 
not  so  much  by  his  having  learned  English 
or  not,  as  from  whom  he  learned  it.  I  am 


Language  and  the  Nation        1 1 1 

never  so  ashamed  of  America  as  when  I  hear 
the  immigrant  speak  our  language,  embel- 
lished by  all  the  coarse  slang  and  vile  oaths 
which  it  is  capable  of  containing. 

We  are  under  the  mistaken  idea  that  the 
public  schools  have  accomplished  what  they 
have,  through  that  which  we  are  pleased  to 
call  the  excellence  of  our  system,  or  merely 
because  English  is  the  language  of  instruc- 
tion. What  has  been  done  for  Mary  Antin 
and  hundreds  and  thousands  of  her  brothers 
and  sisters,  has  been  done  through  the 
genius  of  our  public  school  teachers,  as  indi- 
viduals, who  had  a  personal  interest  in  the 
boys  and  girls  born  into  the  nation  through 
the  steerage.  In  this  power  of  personal  con- 
tact, in  this  vital  human  interest,  many  of  our 
teachers  excel. 

Some  years  ago  when  I  crossed  the  ocean, 
homeward  bound,  the  second  cabin  was 
crowded  by  American  public  school  teachers, 
who  are  the  best  travellers  I  know  ;  eager 
and  intelligent,  they  absorb  quickly  and 
treasure  greedily  what  they  have  learned. 
As  we  neared  the  home  port,  there  came 


112          Nationalizing  America 

across  the  water  a  gentler  breeze,  and  the 
green,  angry  sea  felt  the  soothing  touch  of 
the  inflowing  rivers.  The  moon  was  full  and 
the  heavens  were  covered  by  myriads  of  the 
starry  host.  I  stole  my  way  to  the  upper 
deck  to  have  the  sky  and  the  sea  to  myself ; 
but  when  I  reached  it  I  saw  standing  at  the 
prow  of  the  boat  a  woman  who,  under  the 
mystic  light,  seemed  to  float  out  upon  the 
very  sea. 

I  thought  some  passenger  was  contemplat- 
ing suicide,  and  stole  softly  to  where  she 
stood,  my  footsteps  muffled  by  the  lapping 
water.  As  I  came  close  I  heard  her  crying 
out  into  the  teeth  of  the  wind  created  by  the 
fast  moving  ship:  "The  sea!  The  sea! 
The  wonderful  sea ! " 

When  her  voice  died  away,  she  became 
conscious  of  my  presence,  and  dropping  her 
outstretched  arms,  she  shamefacedly  con- 
fessed to  her  excess  of  emotion,  which  needed 
an  outlet. 

"You  know,"  she  said,  "I  have  been 
abroad  for  three  months  ;  in  Venice,  Gra- 
nada, Paris  and  Vienna.  A  week  from  to- 


Language  and  the  Nation        113 

day  I  shall  be  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  a  stuffy 
schoolroom,  teaching  dirty  little  foreign  brats 
to  say  c-a-t,  cat,  c-a-t,  cat." 

I  understood  her  very  well  and  appreciated 
how  she  felt  at  being  discovered  while  giving 
vent  to  her  emotions.  I  said,  "  Let's  do  it 
together."  So  we  called  it  out,  into  the 
swirling  spray  :  "The  sea  1  The  sea  1  The 
wonderful  sea  1 "  After  we  had  thus  relieved 
our  feelings,  I  told  her  of  the  greatness  of  her 
task  in  Columbus,  what  share  she  might  have 
in  the  making  of  this  nation,  what  a  high, 
patriotic,  human  task  was  hers  in  giving  the 
children  of  strangers  a  new  tongue,  of  bind- 
ing them  to  a  new  people,  and  baptizing 
them  into  a  new  spirit. 

I  visited  her  school  in  Columbus,  Ohio, 
and  I  saw  her  teaching  her  "dirty,  little 
foreign  brats "  to  say :  "  c-a-t,  cat."  I  saw 
the  hungry  eyes  of  little  children  lifted  ador- 
ingly to  her  face,  and  I  am  sure  that  there  in 
Columbus  she  has  experienced  loftier  emo- 
tions than  those  she  felt  when  she  called  out 
across  the  deep,  "  The  sea  1  The  sea  1  The 
wonderful  sea  1 " 


H4          Nationalizing  America 

This  very  summer  I  met  a  teacher  in  the 
city  of  Denver,  who  was  instructing  an  adult 
class  in  English.  It  was  composed  of  Jews, 
Greeks,  Italians,  Armenians,  and  Spaniards. 
This  devoted  woman  is  more  than  a  teacher ; 
she  is  a  sister  to  all  of  them,  and  to  no  sister 
in  the  flesh  have  they  ever  confessed  so  freely 
their  failings,  their  hopes  and  their  fears. 

"  My  life,"  she  said,  "  has  been  enriched 
by  more  than  I  ever  thought  it  could  con- 
tain. I  have  had  glimpses  into  the  heart  of 
nations,  and  I  understand  people  as  I  never 
understood  them  before."  That  is  the  testi- 
mony which  comes  to  me  from  every  place 
where  an  honest  attempt  is  made  to  touch 
the  life  of  these  foreigners,  and  where  teach- 
ing the  language  was  merely  a  way  of  ap- 
proach, a  means  of  carrying  to  them  bigger 
values. 

Each  year  there  come  to  me  a  number  of 
foreign  born  boys  and  girls,  eager  for  a 
college  education.  They  come  from  the 
mine  and  the  shop,  some  of  them  from  deep 
poverty.  Invariably  I  find  that  the  aspiration 
towards  higher  ideals  came  from  a  public 


Language  and  the  Nation        115 

school  teacher,  who  had  given  herself  with 
the  language. 

A  brilliant  French  woman  told  me  some 
time  ago  that  we  shall  never  be  a  nation  be- 
cause we  have  no  distinct  national  language. 
She  said  this  mournfully,  and  with  a  dra- 
matic shrug  of  the  shoulders,  so  characteristic 
of  her  people. 

I  am  not  ready  to  accept  her  verdict ;  but 
I  do  believe  that  we  need  to  realize  the  value 
of  language  in  the  making  of  the  nation. 
We  must  treasure  it  as  the  vehicle  of  our 
national,  spiritual  and  cultural  inheritance, 
and  we  must  speak  it  as  if  we  recognized 
that  fact. 

We  must  teach  it  to  the  alien  in  our  midst, 
and  thus  share  with  him  the  legacy  of  the 
past,  that  he  may  be  prepared  for  the  part 
he  is  to  play  in  the  making  of  the  nation. 


V 

The  Stomach  Line 

THERE  ought  to  be  some  safe  and 
sane  middle  ground  between  the 
optimism  of  the  past,  an  optimism 
which  rested  national  security  entirely  upon 
material  affluence,  and  the  prevailing  pes- 
simism, which  gathers  its  gloom  from  the 
sudden  introspection  necessitated  by  the  war 
spirit  which  has  enveloped  us.  It  is  high 
time  that  we  should  discount  a  good  deal  of 
what  nature  has  done  for  us  so  lavishly,  in 
giving  us  the  material  basis  out  of  which  to 
shape  a  powerful  people,  and  take  account 
of  the  forces  which  are  created  by  the  people 
themselves,  forces  which  work  for  unity  and 
security. 

It  is  however  dangerous  to  drop  into  the 
skeptical  mood  which  carries  its  own  unfa- 
vorable answer  to  every  question,  and  depre- 
cates everything  which  we  have  achieved  in 
116 


The  Stomach  Line  117 

making  a  nation.  It  was  in  this  frame  of 
mind  that  the  editorial  of  one  of  our  metro- 
politan papers  was  written,  and  it  gave  me 
the  subject  for  this  chapter. 

"Are  we  a  Nation  above  the  Stomach 
Line?"  the  editor  asks.  Of  course  his  an- 
swer is  in  the  negative.  This  country  is 
merely  a  barnyard  into  which  the  immigrants 
have  come,  and  they  are  the  pigs  struggling 
about  the  trough,  each  to  get,  not  only  his 
share  of  corn,  but  as  much  of  his  neighbor's 
as  he  can.  There  is  no  loyalty  for  the  hand 
which  feeds  us  and  builds  the  sty  that  shel- 
ters us. 

The  figure  is  a  poor  one  as  one  can  readily 
see ;  for  the  simile,  to  be  complete,  should  have 
read  something  like  this :  "  There  is  no  loy- 
alty for  the  hand  which  feeds  us,  which  builds 
our  sty "  and — which  after  we  are  fed, 
slaughters  us.  Pigs  have  never  developed  a 
sense  of  loyalty  or  gratitude ;  for  pigs  have 
ultimately  been  turned  into  pork,  and  pork 
has  remained  a  stranger  to  the  higher  emo- 
tions, no  matter  what  it  may  do  for  those  of 
us  who  eat  it. 


1 1 8          Nationalizing  America 

If  the  editor  had  used  the  figure  of  the 
kennel,  his  pessimism  might  have  been  tem- 
pered by  the  thought  that  dogs  have  been 
turned  from  treacherous  wolves  into  guard- 
ians of  the  home,  and  that  now  they  are  sym- 
bols of  fidelity. 

Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  the  noble  virtue 
of  patriotism  rests  upon  economic  well-being. 
Men  begin  to  love  their  country  when  they 
find  in  it  food  and  shelter,  they  fight  for  it 
when  their  pastures  are  threatened,  and  their 
harvests  endangered,  or  they  leave  it  and 
forget  it  when  bread  can  be  more  easily  se- 
cured elsewhere. 

It  is  certainly  no  reflection  upon  the  an- 
cestors of  those  of  us  who  belong  to  the  Sons 
and  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution, 
to  question  whether  all  the  men  who  fought, 
fought  for  an  abstraction,  an  ideal.  Maurice 
Low,  in  his  "The  American  People,"  writes: 
"  Dazzled  by  the  glamour  of  history  and  vic- 
tory, we  are  apt  to  invest  a  whole  people 
with  the  qualities  and  virtues  of  their  chosen 
leaders. 

"  Among  the  men  who  gave  force  to  the 


The  Stomach  Line  119 

movement  which  ended  in  the  overthrow  of 
English  power  in  America,  were  men  morally 
and  intellectually  great ;  noble  and  unselfish 
men,  who  cherished  an  ideal  and  from  it  never 
swerved ;  and  there  were  also  men  who  were 
great  neither  in  intellect  nor  in  moral  stamina, 
who  were  governed  by  selfish  motives,  who 
were  opportunists  and  not  idealists." 

In  the  "  Spoon  River  Anthology,"  those 
post  mortem  autobiographies  of  some  of  our 
Mid-western  village  folk,  Mr.  Masters  makes 
one  of  his  characters,  as  he  contemplates  the 
monument  erected  by  his  fellow  villagers, 
say: 

"  I  was  the  first  fruits  of  Missionary  Ridge. 
When  I  felt  the  bullet  enter  my  heart, 
I  wished  I  had  stayed  at  home  and  gone  to  jail 
For  stealing  hogs  of  Curt  Trenary, 
Instead  of  running  away  and  joining  the  army. 
Rather  a  thousand  times  the  county  jail, 
Than  to  lie  under  this  marble  figure  with  wings, 

and  this  granite  pedestal, 
Bearing  the  words    '  Pro  Patria.' 
What  do  they  mean  anyway?  " 

It  may  be  no  mere  coincidence  to  find  that 
the  newly  awakened  patriotism,  of  which  the 
editors  of  Eastern  papers  were  the  first  spon- 


I2O          Nationalizing  America 

sors,  stretches  along  the  line  where  greatest 
profit  may  be  reaped  from  war,  or  where 
greatest  damage  to  property  may  occur  in 
case  of  an  invasion.  According  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  the  furor  of  pa- 
triotism to  which  we  have  been  lashed  by 
the  Mexican  situation,  has  financial  interests 
back  of  it. 

Their  money  was  sent  to  Mexico  to  be  in- 
vested, thus  escaping  taxation  in  the  United 
States  and  reaping  huge  profits.  As  long  as 
this  investment  was  undisturbed,  these  finan- 
cial interests  would  have  repudiated  any  at- 
tempt on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to 
claim  guardianship  over  Mexico ;  but  as  soon 
as  these  property  interests  were  threatened, 
capital  became  patriotic,  and  demanded  that 
the  country  send  its  sons  to  protect  its  mines, 
even  if  they  perish  on  the  alkali  deserts  of 
Northern  Mexico. 

My  point  is,  that  the  "  stomach  line "  is 
after  all  a  very  vital  one  in  the  development 
of  patriotism  ;  therefore  to  the  making  of  a 
nation,  and  that  it  too  frequently  determines 
its  destiny.  It  is  true  that  the  millions  of 


The  Stomach  Line  121 

men  and  women  who  came  to  us  in  the  last 
half  century  gave  up  their  old  world  home, 
separated  themselves  from  their  kinsmen, 
and  faced  a  long,  wearisome  ocean  voyage ; 
not  alone  because  they  loved  our  institutions 
or  knew  aught  about  them,  but  primarily 
because  here  they  could  get  more  bread  and 
butter  in  return  for  their  brain  and  brawn. 

It  is  equally  true  that  their  choice  of  this 
country  as  the  permanent  home  for  them- 
selves and  their  children  was  governed 
largely  by  their  finding  it  a  better  place 
in  which  to  live. 

We  have  properly  idealized  the  past,  and 
have  taken  under  the  shelter  of  the  Pilgrim 
spirit  all  who  came,  up  to  a  certain  period  ; 
even  though  they  were  brought  out  of  Eng- 
land's debtor's  prisons,  or  were  dumped  by 
the  ship-load,  gathered  from  Ireland's  poor- 
houses  and  asylums. 

It  was  at  any  time  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  people  that  sought  in  this  country 
a  sanctuary  for  their  ideals,  or  came  because 
of  the  ideals  they  expected  to  find ;  free  land 
and  not  freedom  was  the  magnet  which  drew 


122          Nationalizing  America 

the  majority,  and  those  who  sought  the  first 
were  not  necessarily  better  material  out  of 
which  to  shape  a  free  nation  than  those  who 
sought  the  latter.  The  lure  of  America  was 
its  wealth,  and  not  until  later  did  the  Goddess 
of  Liberty  light  her  beacon  for  them. 

The  sacredness  of  religious  history  is  not 
demeaned  when  one  discovers  how  close  to 
its  root  are  the  lower  senses  and  appetites ; 
and  the  proverb  :  "  The  way  to  a  man's  heart 
is  through  his  stomach  "  need  not  lower  the 
ideal  of  the  love  of  a  man  for  a  woman. 

It  may  even  be  true  that  the  divorce  mills 
would  have  less  grist  to  grind  if  the  grist 
were  better  prepared  in  the  kitchen.  It  is 
also  true  that  a  fine  patriotism  is  developed 
when  the  common  man  belongs  to  a  state 
which  looks  to  his  well-being. 

If  I  quote  Germany  ad  nauseum,  it  is  be- 
cause I  can  cite  no  other  nation  which  to  the 
same  degree  has  the  unquestioned,  whole- 
souled  devotion  of  all  her  people.  That 
devotion  is  due  to  the  fact  that  for  the  last 
forty  years  the  German  state  has  made  it  its 
business  to  look  after  the  well-being  of  the 


The  Stomach  Line  123 

individual.  It  has  checked  his  exploitation, 
guarded  his  personal  safety,  and  protected 
the  health  of  children  yet  unborn,  by  with- 
drawing pregnant  women  from  factory 
labor,  providing  for  their  comfort,  and 
later,  enabling  the  young  mother  to  give 
her  whole  time  to  the  new-born  child. 

No  case  of  illness  has  gone  unattended 
and  no  accident  remained  a  handicap  to  be 
carried  by  the  worker  alone.  Sickness  and 
death,  those  sure  and  expensive  attendants 
of  the  poor,  were  at  least  palliated  by  the 
state,  as  far  as  lay  in  its  power. 

No  Utopia  was  created  and  discontent  was 
not  entirely  eliminated.  The  state  cannot 
inure  itself  against  human  nature  ;  but  in  this 
present  holocaust,  when  the  state  comman- 
deers the  wealth,  the  comfort,  the  health,  the 
very  life  of  its  people,  they  are  saying  with 
perfect  faith  :  "The  state  has  given,  the  state 
has  taken  away ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the 
state." 

No  man  acquainted  with  the  Whitechapel 
district  of  London,  the  slums  of  Manchester, 
or  the  gloom  of  Glasgow,  needs  to  be  en- 


1 24          Nationalizing  America 

lightened  upon  the  question  why  Englishmen 
were  so  reluctant  to  rally  to  their  banners. 

Not  until  Zeppelins  flew  over  London,  and 
coast  cities  were  bombarded  and  the  in- 
vasion of  England  was  a  possibility  ;  not 
until  food  grew  dear,  and  life  itself  was 
threatened,  were  Englishmen  ready  to  fight 
for  England. 

Patriotism  begins  at  the  "  stomach  line  "  ; 
fortunately  it  does  not  stop  there,  but  it  does 
begin  there. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  wealth  or  per- 
sonal well-being  is  essential  to  the  creation 
of  patriotic  ideals  or  to  their  maintenance, 
or  to  the  stability  of  a  compact  nation. 

Upon  ;  the  stony  soil  of  Montenegro, 
where  harvests  are  gathered  by  the  mere 
handfuls,  and  some  seasons  are  not  gathered 
at  all ;  where  poverty  is  so  common  that  an 
abundance  of  black  bread  is  the  measure  of 
wealth,  a  noble  patriotism  has  been  de- 
veloped, which  has  no  superior  anywhere. 
The  Montenegrins  besides  their  common  de- 
scent, their  common  danger  and  their  com- 
mon poverty,  have  a  ruler  who  takes  a  per- 


The  Stomach  Line  125 

sonal  interest  in  his  half  million  subjects. 
Their  feeling  of  hunger  is  relieved  by  the 
thought  that  their  Czar  knows  about  it,  that 
he  is  not  to  blame  for  it,  and  that  he  will 
share  it,  if  necessary. 

If  the  sense  of  belonging  to  the  nation  has 
remained  weak  among  the  people  of  our 
alien  population,  it  is  because  we  have  per- 
mitted them  to  remain  alien  to  us  and  be- 
cause we  have  had  little  concern  for  their 
welfare. 

Patriotism  cannot  easily  be  bred  in  our 
satellite  cities,  begotten  in  greed,  mere  reser- 
voirs of  human  power,  to  be  used,  and  abused 
as  we  do  not  and  dare  not  now  abuse  what 
we  call  our  natural  resources. 

Mr.  Charles  Schwab  and  other  magnates  of 
the  Steel  Trust,  who  work  men  twelve  hours 
a  day,  at  a  task  which  leaves  them  despoiled 
of  strength  and  ready  for  the  scrap  pile  at 
the  end  of  a  few  years,  are  not  patriot  mak- 
ers, although  they  are  makers  of  guns  and 
moulders  of  shrapnel.  The  clothing  manu- 
facturers of  New  York  City  who  are  starving 
tens  of  thousands  of  people  into  a  humiliat- 


126          Nationalizing  America 

ing  submission,  are  not  patriots ;  and  if  our 
patriotism  were  of  a  finer  sort,  we  would  dare 
to  call  them  traitors. 

My  host  in  New  England  confessed  that 
he  did  not  pay  a  living  wage  to  his  em- 
ployees. He  said  he  could  not  manufacture 
woolen  stuffs,  and  pay  more.  This  may  or 
may  not  be  true ;  but  if  it  is  true,  it  is  a  sin 
against  the  state,  yes,  against  God  Himself, 
to  spin  yarn  from  hunger  and  dye  cloth  in 
human  blood.  If  we  cannot  weave  woolen 
cloth,  and  at  the  same  time  pay  a  living 
wage,  then  let  those  weave  it  who  can.  The 
well-being  of  the  state  demands  the  well- 
being  of  its  workers  more  than  the  wealth  of 
stockholders. 

It  is  easy  for  us  to  cry  :  "  America  First " 
and  mean  it,  we  who  have  never  felt  hunger 
gripping  us,  who  have  never  felt  that  greater 
pain,  the  hunger  of  our  children  ;  we  who  do 
not  have  to  seek  shelter  in  stuffy  tenements 
and  sleep  in  airless  rooms  after  toiling  ten 
hard  hours  in  an  equally  stuffy,  airless  fac- 
tory. 

Imagine  coming  in  with  me  to  the  United 


The  Stomach  Line  127 

States  in  the  steerage,  say  on  that  German 
ship  which  brought  a  load  of  twelve  hundred 
immigrants,  some  eight  years  ago  ;  a  trip 
very  significant  to  me,  for  I  tried  to  test 
a  theory  which  I  held.  I  believed  that  if  the 
immigrants  had  a  chance  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  American  ideals  on  board  of 
ship,  when  they  are  idle  and  most  open  to  in- 
fluences, it  might  help  them  to  make  a  right 
start. 

We  begin  when  the  immigrant  has  been 
embittered  by  exploitation,  his  mind  poisoned 
and  his  attitude  towards  the  country  and  its 
institutions  biased,  and  then  it  is  too  late. 
On  this  particular  trip  I  acted  as  an  official 
might  act  who  has  been  designated  for  such 
a  task  as  I  had  in  mind. 

Nearly  every  hour  of  every  one  of  the  ten 
days  we  spent  together  I  told  them  what 
America  means  to  the  world,  what  it  might 
mean  to  them.  I  told  them  that  it  is  a  coun- 
try whose  government  is  based  upon  the 
fundamental  idea  of  human  worth  and  dig- 
nity. I  impressed  upon  them  that  they  are 
to  be  factors  in  that  government,  and  that 


128          Nationalizing  America 

upon  their  behavior  one  towards  the  other, 
depends  our  common  well-being ;  and  what 
I  said  was  not  unintelligible  to  the  people  to 
whom  I  spoke. 

I  remember  many  individuals  in  that  group 
and  the  members  of  one  family  in  particular 
stand  out. 

They  had  come  from  the  Caucasus,  and 
had  passed  through  horrible  persecutions  be- 
cause of  their  religious  ideas.  From  Russia 
they  fled  into  Turkey,  where  they  had  to  wit- 
ness the  horrible  butcheries  of  the  Armenians. 

Unable  to  stand  it  any  longer  they  decided 
upon  the  long,  hard  journey  to  the  United 
States.  They  fairly  hung  upon  my  words. 
The  land  I  described  was  the  land  they  were 
seeking ;  here  were  the  ideals  for  which  they 
had  suffered,  and  they  were  not  alone  in 
those  anticipations. 

At  last  we  came  under  the  lea  of  the  sand- 
dunes  of  Long  Island,  and  witnessed  the 
slow  disclosure  of  that  marvel  of  cities,  with 
its  heaven  assaulting  roofs  and  spires.  The 
ship  lay  at  anchor  and  the  quarantine  offi- 
cers came  on  board.  The  immigrants  had 


The  Stomach  Line  129 

been  driven  down  like  cattle,  and  one  by  one 
were  to  pass  before  the  officers. 

Their  hats  were  knocked  from  their  heads 
by  the  impatient  guardian  of  the  health  of 
the  state ;  they  were  pulled  and  pushed  in  a 
fashion  by  which  our  ineffective  hurry  always 
expresses  itself.  The  spectacle  was  so  brutal 
that  I  could  not  stand  it.  I  jumped  into  the 
line  and  made  a  protest  which  was  ineffective, 
for  I  was  threatened  with  arrest  for  interfer- 
ing with  an  officer ;  while  the  brutal  and 
brutalizing  process  went  on  as  before. 

At  Ellis  Island  the  procedure  was  more 
humane,  and  it  is  but  just  to  say  that  the 
Commissioners  of  Immigration  in  the  last 
twelve  years  have  been  men  above  reproach, 
to  whom  the  task  appealed  as  a  big  oppor- 
tunity for  service.  At  no  time  has  there 
been  a  more  intelligent  head  of  that  institu- 
tion than  it  has  in  Mr.  Frederic  Howe,  who 
represents  the  flower  of  our  American  citi- 
zenship, which  one  wishes  might  be  more 
common  than  it  is. 

My  family  from  the  Caucasus  went  to 
West  Virginia,  to  the  coalfields,  and  were 


130          Nationalizing  America 

sheltered  in  a  stockade,  which  was  more 
prison  than  home.  There  was  barbed  wire 
around  their  camp,  and  armed  guards  to  give 
them  further  protection.  There  was  a  strike, 
and  they  did  not  know  it.  They  were 
clubbed  by  the  strikers  because  they  worked, 
and  then  struck  with  the  butt  of  guns  when 
they  refused  to  work. 

That  was  the  beginning  of  their  life  in 
America.  Later  I  had  a  letter  from  the  head 
of  the  family.  I  never  answered  it,  for  he 
called  me  a  liar,  and  that  hurt  tremendously, 
because  he  was  right.  If  I  ever  meet  that 
man  and  find  that  he  is  not  shouting 
"America  First,"  whose  fault  will  it  be?  If 
I  find  him  in  the  welter  of  the  I.  W.  W. 
who  will  be  to  blame  ? 

To  the  forlorn  and  forbidding,  alkali- 
burned  southern  edge  of  Colorado,  came 
Greeks  and  Hungarians  to  dig  coal.  They 
were  isolated  from  everything  good  and 
kept  in  touch  with  everything  bad.  Now, 
after  a  long  strike  for  decent  working  condi- 
tions, they  have  been  finally  beaten  into  sub- 
mission by  a  militia  whose  conduct  was  on 


The  Stomach  Line  131 

the  level  of  Russia's  Cossacks.  If  they  do 
not  sing  as  lustily  as  we,  "  My  country  'tis 
of  thee,  sweet  land  of  liberty  " — whose  fault 
is  it? 

And  what  of  the  children  whose  bodies  are 
being  bleached  like  lepers'  in  our  cotton 
mills,  or  whose  young  frames  as  they  bend 
over  the  breakers  are  shaken  by  tumbling 
coal,  from  which  their  nimble  fingers  pick 
the  slate  ?  What  of  the  youths  whose  lungs 
are  eaten  by  coal  dust  in  the  mines,  or  by 
the  lint  which  flies  from  the  loom  ?  If  they 
are  reluctant  or  unable  to  fight  for  their 
country,  who  will  be  responsible  ? 

We  talk  much  about  the  American  home 
which  is  even  yet  the  basis  of  national  well- 
being,  although  many  of  its  functions  are 
abrogated.  The  home  still  determines  the 
good  or  ill  of  the  child,  and  through  him  the 
good  or  ill  of  the  nation.  Yet  we  permit  mil- 
lions of  people  to  work,  with  no  chance  to 
make  a  real  home. 

Children  there  will  be,  nature  sees  to  that ; 
but  what  kind  of  children  can  be  begotten  in 
our  slums  ? 


132          Nationalizing  America 

The  slums  in  America  are  as  much  a 
national  disgrace  as  they  are  a  national 
menace.  The  gunmen  of  New  York  were 
bred  in  hovels  which  even  the  home-making 
genius  of  the  Jewish  people  could  not  turn 
into  homes,  or  make  fit  for  the  training  of 
children  to  decent  living. 

You  who  go  slumming  to  see  the  sights, 
and  turn  up  your  sensitive  noses  at  bad 
smells,  and  your  eyes  to  Heaven,  thanking 
God  that  you  "  are  not  as  other  men,"  must 
not  forget  that  the  vast  majority  of  our 
foreign  born  workers  are  compelled  to  live 
as  they  do  by  economic  and  social  forces, 
which  they  cannot  control. 

You  remain  ignorant  of  the  brave  struggles 
for  the  home,  and  the  heroic  stand  for  virtue 
behind  those  sooty  walls.  You  know  nothing 
of  the  fear  of  God,  the  desire  to  obey  His 
law,  and  the  love  of  their  country,  which 
filters  in  to  those  receptive  souls. 

The  growth  and  power  of  the  I.  W.  W., 
a  revolutionary  organization  of  the  most 
radical  type,  anti-national,  anti-religious, 
repudiating  God  and  state  with  horrifying 


The  Stomach  Line  133 

blasphemy,  were  made  possible  by  the  fact 
that  our  industrial  leaders,  our  so-called 
"  hard-headed  business  men  "  have  the  hard 
spot  in  their  hearts  and  a  very  soft  spot  in 
their  heads. 

Of  all  the  blind  men  I  have  met,  the  blind- 
est are  those  far-sighted  ones  who  see- wealth 
in  everything,  and  every  common  bush 
aflame  with  gold,  and  see  nothing  else. 
Blind  they  are  to  their  own  larger  good, 
blind  to  the  nation's  needs,  blind  to  the 
signs  of  the  times.  The  social  weal  of  our 
country  is  in  the  hands  of  the  most  unsocial. 

I  know  of  no  man  who  loved,  yea,  who 
still  loves  America  more  than  Arthuro  Gio- 
vanetti,  the  poet  and  prophet  of  the  In- 
dustrial Workers  of  the  World.  He  en- 
tered into  the  spirit  of  our  language  so 
completely  that  his  soul  sings  in  it.  He 
so  absorbed  our  higher  ideals  that  he  pre- 
pared to  become  a  minister  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  and  he  did  preach  the 
Gospel. 

We  might  have  made  of  him  a  spiritual 
leader  among  our  Italian  population,  and  he 


134          Nationalizing  America 

would  have  led  hundreds  of  thousands  to 
a  firm  allegiance  to  our  country  and  our 
God. 

Instead  he  is  now  a  rebel  against  every- 
thing we  hold  sacred.  Why  ? 

Look  into  the  books  of  the  American 
Woolen  Company. 

Go  to  Salem's  jail,  where  he  was  confined 
on  the  charge  of  murder. 

Go  to  Ludlow  and  ask  the  Colorado  Fuel 
and  Iron  Company. 

Inquire  of  the  clothing  manufacturers  in 
New  York ;  go  to  Pittsburgh,  and  ask  the 
Steel  Trust. 

Go  into  our  courts  of  justice  and  watch 
the  procedure,  and  you  will  get  your  an- 
swer. 

There  is  a  man  living  in  Detroit,  Mich- 
igan, who  has  been  called  a  fool  by  most 
people,  and  classed  with  copperheads  by 
Colonel  Roosevelt.  The  product  of  his  fac- 
tory has  gone  on  its  own  merits  and  by 
its  own  power  to  every  part  of  this  country 
and  to  many  parts  of  the  world.  His  patri- 
otism has  been  impugned  in  ringing  edi- 


The  Stomach  Line  135 

torials,  and  the  funny  man  of  every  joke 
column  has  held  him  up  to  public  ridicule. 

This  man  has  voluntarily  given  his  men 
double  the  accepted  wage  of  the  labor 
market,  and  not  satisfied  by  that,  he  trains 
them  to  sobriety,  and  good  citizenship. 

To  make  20,000  people  contented  and 
efficient,  to  teach  them  the  English  lan- 
guage and  their  duties  to  the  state,  seems 
to  me  at  least  as  great  a  contribution  to  the 
national  weal,  as  Mr.  Vincent  Astor's  gift 
of  a  hydroplane  to  a  New  York  regiment. 

The  patriotism  of  our  many  manufacturers 
who  chide  us  for  our  lack  of  it  is  not  on  the 
"  stomach  line  " — it  is  lower  than  that — it  is 
on  the  pocketbook  line,  and  as  soon  as  they 
have  lifted  themselves  above  that,  they  will 
lift  with  them  the  millions  of  men  they  em- 
ploy. 

They  cannot  get  the  "state  sense,"  as 
Mr.  H.  G.  Wells  calls  it,  until  they  get  the 
sense  of  the  human — until  they  get  the  sense 
of  the  diviye  in  the  human. 

I  had  a  lengthy  and  intimate  interview 
with  a  man  who  is  co-partner  in  a  great 


136          Nationalizing  America 

manufacturing  business.  He  has  undertaken 
to  look  after  the  labor  side  of  the  problem, 
while  his  brother  looks  after  the  money  side. 
He  told  me  that  in  a  certain  department  he 
has  gradually  reduced  the  hours  of  labor 
from  twelve  to  six.  That  is,  he  really  in- 
stituted a  six  hour  day,  and  it  has  proved 
perfectly  satisfactory  to  the  money  side  of 
the  house.  When  I  congratulated  him  upon 
his  humanitarianism  he  confessed  that  his 
action  had  nothing  to  do  with  that  fine 
virtue.  It  had  nothing  to  do  with  saving 
the  time  or  the  strength  of  the  toiler.  The 
men's  hours  were  lessened  to  save  certain 
machines. 

The  machines  in  question  were  very  ex- 
pensive and  soon  wore  out.  To  pay  for 
themselves  they  had  to  be  attended  unre- 
mittingly and  to  do  this  effectively  he  dis- 
covered that  no  man  could  do  it  longer 
than  six  hours.  He  is  getting  human  sense 
and  the  state  sense  ;  but  it  is  coming  to  him 
through  the  pocketbook  sense,  or,  if  you 
please,  from  the  "  stomach  line." 

The  prohibition  wave  which  is  sweeping 


The  Stomach  Line  137 

the  country  would  not  have  been  effective 
without  the  stand  taken  by  great  industrial 
firms.  While  we  praise  them  for  it,  we 
must  not  forget  that  when  the  women  of 
the  W.  C.  T.  U.  pleaded  for  their  aid,  on 
behalf  of  drunkards'  wives  and  drunkards' 
children,  reciting  to  them  the  awful  woes 
which  follow  in  the  wake  of  intemperance, 
they  either  smiled  benignantly  at  them  or 
indignantly  showed  them  the  door. 

When  German  scholars  took  the  pains  to 
investigate  the  subject  with  their  accustomed 
thoroughness,  and  discovered  that  the  work- 
ing man  drunk  was  less  effective  than  the 
working  man  sober,  and  when  laws  were 
passed  making  industry  bear  part  of  the  ills 
of  accidents,  temperance  was  encouraged 
and  saloons  were  .swept  from  places  where 
they  seemed  hopelessly  entrenched. 

As  I  analyze  my  own  relation  to  the  nation 
of  which  I  am  as  much  a  part  as  if  I  had  been 
born  under  its  flag,  I  find  that  it  rests  itself 
upon  the  feeling  of  gratitude.  Not  for  the 
bread  I  eat,  for  I  had  bread  enough  in  my 
native  country  ;  not  for  the  comfort  of  home, 


138          Nationalizing  America 

for  I  had  fair  comforts  before  I  came ;  not 
even  for  liberty  and  democracy  as  abstrac- 
tions, or  even  as  embodied  in  the  state  ;  for  1 
have  found  that  freedom  is  within,  and  de- 
mocracy a  matter  of  attitude  towards  one's 
fellows. 

I  am  grateful  for  the  chance  I  have  had 
here  to  develop  unhampered  my  own  self, 
for  a  certain  largeness  of  vision  which  I  think 
I  would  not  have  developed  anywhere  else ; 
for  the  richness  which  a  broad  unhindered 
contact  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men 
has  brought  into  my  life. 

There  is  something  more  than  gratitude  in 
my  heart  now.  There  is  a  larger  sense  of 
the  values  I  received  which  I  have  not  yet 
appropriated.  There  is  in  my  heart  a  sub- 
lime passion  for  America.  Would  it  have 
grown  into  the  burning  flame  it  is,  if  I  had 
always  worked  in  New  York's  sweat-shops  ? 

If  I  had  been  beaten  by  New  York's  police 
and  been  dragged  through  heartless  courts  ? 
If  I  had  reared  my  family  in  a  tenement,  and 
had  to  send  my  children  to  work  when  they 
should  have  played  and  studied  ? 


The  Stomach  Line  139 

If  I  had  known  America  only  through  her 
yellow  journalism,  and  sensed  her  spirit  only 
in  ward  elections  ?  I  do  not  know. 

What  has  kept  me  from  becoming  an 
Anarchist,  from  being  jailed  or  hanged  for 
leading  mobs  against  their  despoilers,  God 
alone  knows.  His  guidance  is  as  unques- 
tioned as  it  is  mysterious.  There  were  dis- 
closed to  me,  early  in  my  career,  in  some 
strange  way,  the  spiritual  values  latent  here. 
In  spite  of  the  gross,  granite-like  materi- 
alism at  the  top,  I  discovered  the  richness  of 
the  heritage  left  by  the  fathers  of  this  repub- 
lic ;  in  spite  of  the  poverty  and  hardship  in 
which  I  had  to  share,  I  saw  here  the  fine 
quality  of  its  vision ;  in  spite  of  the  crudeness 
of  its  blundering  ways,  all  the  love  a  man 
may  have  for  a  country  grew  in  my  heart, 
and  changed  only  in  growing  stronger. 
Yet  I  am  not  in  the  mood  to  call  to  account 
those  toilers  whose  patriotism  is  less  fervent 
than  mine  and  whose  ideals  are  still  held  in 
check  by  the  "  stomach  line." 

Editors  and  preachers,  teachers  and  capi- 
talists, with  all  the  loud  if  not  mighty  host  of 


140          Nationalizing  America 

us  who  are  yammering  about  the  want  of 
patriotism  among  the  masses,  and  the  weak- 
ness of  our  national  spirit ;  we  are  the  first 
who  must  move  a  notch  higher  in  our  love  of 
country  and  above  the  "  stomach  line."  We 
must  make  real  the  spiritual  ideals  for  which 
this  country  stands,  or  at  least  try  to  realize 
them,  before  we  can  teach  the  alien  and  his 
children,  or  even  our  own,  the  meaning  of 
liberty,  and  democracy.  Before  we  can  ask 
them  to  die  for  our  country  we  shall  have  to 
learn  to  live  for  it,  and  the  definite  task  we 
have  before  us  is  not  the  mere  idolatry  of  our 
flag,  or  the  making  of  shard  and  shell. 

To  provide  an  adequate  wage  for  our  men, 
to  so  arrange  our  industrial  order  that  there 
shall  not  be  feverish  activity  to-day,  and 
idleness,  poverty,  breadlines  and  soup  kitch- 
ens to-morrow.  To  make  working  condi- 
tions tolerable,  to  provide  against  accidents 
and  sickness,  unemployment  and  old  age, 
and  to  be  true  to  the  life  about  us. 

These  are  national  factors,  essential  to  the 
making  of  an  effective  national  state  in  our 
industrial  age.  Capital,  in  common  with 


The  Stomach  Line  141 

labor,  must  learn  how  to  lend  itself  to  the 
national  purpose  ;  for  we  have  come  upon  a 
time,  or  the  time  has  come  upon  us,  when 
we  must  learn  how  to  melt  all  classes,  all  sec- 
tions and  all  races  into  a  final  unit.  This  is 
the  time  to  touch  the  hearts  and  gain  the 
confidence  of  all  the  people  by  a  high  regard 
for  all ;  so  that  together  we  may  turn  our 
faces  towards  our  ultimate  goal. 


VI 

History  and  the  Nation 

MANY  of  us  who  have  looked  into 
the  face  of  America  are  wondering 
how  it  will  appear,  what  it  will  be 
like  in  the  future.  We  are  listening  to  the 
confusing  sounds  which  strike  our  ears,  and 
are  anxious  to  know  which  shall  predominate ; 
we  are  still  more  perplexed  when  we  look 
beneath  the  surface,  and  see  and  hear  that 
which  escapes  the  superficial  observer.  We 
are  anxious  because  those  who  come  to  us 
bring  not  only  racial  inheritance  and  the  lan- 
guage which  their  mothers  taught  them; 
they  bring  tradition-laden  memories,  stand- 
ards of  living  and  conduct,  hopes  and  ideals. 
Upon  our  ability  to  blend  their  historic  in- 
heritance with  ours,  depends  our  success  or 
failure  in  the  task  of  unifying,  solidifying 
and  enriching  our  national  life,  rather  than 

in  eliminating  altogether  what  they  bring; 
142 


History  and  the  Nation         143 

a  process  which  is  not  quite  wholesome  and 
which  may  be  safely  left  to  time. 

American  history  is,  after  all,  a  chapter  in 
the  history  of  the  whole  human  race,  and  you 
cannot  dig  into  America's  immediate  past 
without  striking  roots  branching  in  all  direc- 
tions. Neither  can  you  think  of  her  future 
without  finding  her  profoundly  affecting  the 
people  of  the  world. 

We  are  sovereign  over  this  land  of  ours, 
we  are  being  shaped  into  something  which 
will  have  physical  kinship  or  likeness ;  but 
have  we  a  common  history,  that  powerful 
element  in  the  welding  of  a  nation,  and  in- 
dispensable to  it?  Our  splendid  isolation, 
which  in  the  past  has  done  so  much  to  keep 
us  from  entangling  alliances,  and  has  kept 
us  from  becoming  the  inheritor  of  Europe's 
political  ills,  has  also  made  it  possible  for  us 
to  develop  our  own  history  and  to  teach  it  as 
if  it  were  another  Genesis. 

If  we  did  not,  like  the  Jews,  monopolize  the 
creative  week,  it  was  due  to  the  fact  that  we 
carried  with  us  into  the  wilderness  the  sacred 
history  which  records  it.  We  did  manage  to 


144          Nationalizing  America 

endow  the  Creator  with  Puritan  character- 
istics, and  the  prophets,  apostles  and  disciples 
became  our  compatriots,  who,  our  children 
believe,  all  came  over  in  the  May/lower.  If 
we  do  not  insist  that  they  joined  a  particular 
church,  it  is  due  to  the  keen  denominational 
rivalry  which  exists  among  us.  Naturally, 
we  do  not  quarrel  about  Judas  ;  we  have  left 
him  to  the  Jews,  and  he  is  the  only  one 
among  the  twelve  whose  Semitic  features  we 
have  not  altered.  If  we  brought  him  over  at 
all,  he  had  to  travel  in  the  steerage. 

So  keen  were  some  of  our  immediate  an- 
cestors to  make  this  historic  connection  with 
the  sacred  past,  that  certain  ones  sought  and 
found  the  written  records,  conveniently  en- 
graved for  them  on  copper  plates.  They 
printed  a  brand  new  American  Bible,  founded 
a  brand  new  American  religion,  and  built  a 
New  Jerusalem  on  the  shores  of  the  Salt 
Lake.  Immediately  above  it,  even  if  not  lo- 
cated in  the  United  States,  there  is  no  doubt 
an  American  Heaven  full  of  American  angels. 

We  accepted  nothing  from  the  aborigines, 
although  we  took  everything  from  them. 


History  and  the  Nation          145 

How  completely  they  have  dropped  from 
our  historic  consciousness  I  realized  recently, 
when  a  woman,  who  had  spent  the  winter  in 
Arizona,  told  me  of  her  sojourn  there.  She 
said  that  while  the  climate  was  wonderful 
she  did  not  like  the  people ;  there  were 
too  many  foreigners.  Being  fairly  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  location  of  the  immigrant 
populations  and  knowing  that  as  yet  they 
have  not  reached  Arizona  in  such  uncom- 
fortable numbers,  I  asked  her  for  further 
information.  "  Oh,"  she  said,  "  there  are  so 
many  Indians  there." 

Of  our  British  past  we  are  now  being  re- 
minded more  and  more  emphatically ;  what 
we  owe  to  Spain,  France,  Holland  and  Swe- 
den we  are  beginning  to  learn ;  the  contri- 
bution of  the  German  people  we  shall  not  be 
permitted  to  forget,  and  what  the  latter-day 
immigrant  has  thus  far  given  and  what  he 
may  give,  must  of  course  be  appraised  in  the 
future. 

It  was  after  all  a  good  thing  that  Amer- 
ican history  so  soon  became  the  history  of 
one  people,  that  the  colonies  so  quickly  for- 


146          Nationalizing  America 

got  their  historic  background,  and  that  the 
states  carved  out  of  these  vast  territories 
came  in  one  by  one,  or  two  by  two,  as  the 
animals  went  into  the  ark.  The  historic  del- 
uge followed,  all  but  blotting  out  the  past. 
On  the  extreme  edges  of  what  was  once  the 
domain  of  France,  the  French  speech  still 
lingers;  of  Spain  and  Spanish,  less  is  left. 
From  ocean  to  ocean  and  from  the  lakes  to 
the  gulf  it  is  all  America,  with  its  history 
written  upon  a  new  page. 

It  is  really  not  difficult  for  the  immigrant 
to  accept  this  new  history  as  his  own  ;  it  is 
easy  because  it  is  so  new,  and  because  its 
beginning  is  marked  by  a  great  discovery 
rather  than  by  a  great  conquest.  The  story 
of  the  discovery  of  America  is  known  to 
every  European  child  which  goes  to  school. 
It  belongs  to  its  earliest  impressions  and 
frequently  antedates  the  fairy  tale.  The 
Italian  child  has  some  historic  claim  upon 
that  great  event,  unless  we  thoroughly  be- 
lieve that  Columbus  was  born  in  Columbus, 
Ohio,  and  that  no  Italian  came  to  these 
shores  till  long  after  we  were  discovered. 


History  and  the  Nation          147 

The  winning  of  the  land  from  the  British, 
and  the  establishment  of  a  republic,  were 
events  which  made  their  impression  every- 
where and  found  an  echo  in  the  hearts  of  all 
those  who  felt  themselves  oppressed,  and 
yearned  for  freedom. 

While  we  may  say  that  freedom  was 
established  here  as  a  political  principle,  it  is 
an  idle  conceit  in  which  we  indulge  our 
selves,  if  we  believe  that  there  was  no  yearn- 
ing for  it  and  no  understanding  of  it  else- 
where. 

The  share  which  German,  French  and 
Polish  generals  had  in  the  Revolutionary 
War  was  not  inconsiderable,  and  of  common 
soldiers  who  were  not  of  native  or  of  English 
blood  there  was  so  large  a  number  as  to 
make  it  impossible  to  maintain  the  idea  that 
none  but  Anglo-Saxons  can  love  freedom. 
That  passion  is,  after  all,  a  very  common, 
human  quality,  and  there  is  a  response  to 
those  who  struggle  for  it,  which  is  limited 
only  by  the  endeavor  of  rulers  to  suppress 
it,  because  of  political  or  dynastic  interests. 

We  are  fortunate  in  having  written  upon 


148          Nationalizing  America 

that  first  page  of  our  history  the  name  of 
George  Washington,  who  is  no  stranger 
to  freedom -loving  people  anywhere.  His 
monument  is  found  in  many  foreign  capitals, 
and  he  may  be,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  only 
foreign  ruler  thus  honored.  The  Hungarian 
child,  before  it  is  old  enough  to  have  read 
the  historic  page,  has  seen  his  monument 
in  Budapest,  close  to  those  of  Kossuth,  of 
Deak  and  Petoefy,  his  own  national  heroes. 
Even  if  he  comes  into  the  consciousness  of 
the  immigrant  long  after  he  has  left  the 
school  of  his  native  country,  or  even  if  he 
has  never  gone  to  school,  the  character  of 
Washington  makes  its  immediate  appeal 
unlike  any  whom  he  knows  ;  of  royal  nature, 
though  not  of  royal  blood,  he  accepted  no 
recompense  for  serving  his  country.  Making 
service  itself  the  only  reward  he  asked,  he  left 
a  place  of  eminence,  so  that  republican  prin- 
ciples might  be  firmly  established  in  this  land. 
The  period  between  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  and  the  Civil  War  is  the  history 
of  the  migration  of  a  people ;  it  marks  the 
winning  of  the  West,  and  the  making  of 


History  and  the  Nation          149 

great  commonwealths  upon  those  far-stretch- 
ing prairies,  and  in  that  task,  too,  the  immi- 
grant had  an  honorable  part.  The  border 
struggle  was  never  under  the  leadership  of 
one  man  or  one  people,  and  while  the  Scotch- 
Irish  predominated,  the  Germans,  Scandi- 
navians, Poles  and  Bohemians  made  up  a 
fair  share  of  that  ever  moving  frontier  line. 

The  racial  strains  which  went  into  the 
making  of  the  frontiersman  are  hard  to 
trace,  for  it  is  an  elemental  personality  which 
emerged  out  of  that  early  melting  pot. 
Coarse  but  strong,  keen  and  inquisitive, 
powerful  and  materialistic,  restless  and  in- 
dividualistic, buoyant  and  exuberant,  shrewd 
as  Jacob,  and  hardy  as  Esau. 

The  immigrant  readily  enters  into  the 
highly  accentuated  record  of  the  pioneer's 
conflict  with  the  Indians ;  even  though  his 
particular  race  had  no  share  in  the  winning 
of  the  West.  Long  before  I  read  Cooper's 
Indian  tales  I  played  Indian  in  a  village 
among  the  Carpathians,  and  scalped  the 
luckless  palefaces  whom  I  had  captured. 

The  names  of  Sitting  Bull  and  Buffalo  Bill 


150          Nationalizing  America 

have  been  carried  through  the  capitals  of 
Europe,  and  from  towns  and  villages  many 
a  lad's  eyes  were  turned  westward,  yearning 
to  have  a  share  in  fighting  the  Indians. 

The  year  1848  marks  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  European  peoples,  and  the 
immigrants  who  at  that  time  came  to  the 
United  States,  driven  by  their  despots,  re- 
paid this  country  richly  for  the  asylum  they 
found. 

They  made  valuable  contributions  to  our 
culture  and  our  politics,  refining  our  social 
life  and  purifying  our  ideals  of  liberty  and 
democracy.  It  is  a  year  which  serves  to 
accentuate  the  common  passion  for  liberty, 
and  the  common  traits  which  mark  all  noble 
men,  of  whatever  race  they  be. 

The  Civil  War,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it 
was  an  internecine  conflict,  found  a  universal 
echo.  It  seemed  of  little  concern  to  the 
people  of  Europe  whether  the  union  was 
preserved  or  not,  and  England's  commer- 
cial policy  dictated  her  sympathy  with  the 
south  ;  but  upon  the  question  of  slavery  there 
was  no  division. 


History  and  the  Nation          151 

Just  as  the  escape  of  the  children  of  Israel 
out  of  Egypt  has  become  sacred  history, 
the  story  of  the  black  man's  gain  of  free- 
dom has  entered  the  universal  conscious- 
ness ;  for  it  marks  the  death  of  slavery, 
and  in  that  all  human  beings  have  cause 
to  rejoice. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  arouse  enthusiasm  for 
the  soldier  heroes  who  died  in  that  conflict. 
Many  of  them  were  men  of  all  the  racial 
strains  which  had  drifted  into  the  United 
States.  The  outstanding  figures  of  U.  S. 
Grant,  of  Sherman  and  Sheridan  make  their 
heart-stirring  and  picturesque  appeal ;  while 
Stonewall  Jackson  and  Robert  E.  Lee  are 
gradually  becoming  sympathetic  figures  to 
all  American  people,  native  and  foreign 
born. 

There  is,  however,  no  person  in  American 
history,  if  in  any  history,  who  like  Abraham 
Lincoln,  instantly  captures  the  imagination 
of  every  normal  human  being. 

I  doubt  that  the  saints  and  martyrs  upon 
the  church's  calendar,  or  many  sacred  names 
in  Holy  Writ,  are  so  vitally  compelling  as 


152          Nationalizing  America 

the  name  of  this  man,  born  in  a  log  cabin, 
reared  amidst  poverty  and  ignorance,  who 
made  his  way  from  the  backwoods  to  the 
White  House  and  into  the  immortality  of 
history. 

The  sadly  solemn  face  portrayed  upon 
our  commonest  coin,  the  penny,  received 
its  smile  from  the  skilled  fingers  of  an  im- 
migrant sculptor,  who  modelled  it,  "  so  that 
he  may  smile  upon  every  immigrant's  child 
his  first  welcome."  That  was  the  stroke  of 
a  genius  who  understood  Lincoln,  and  knew 
the  common  people's  appreciation  of  the 
great  martyr  president. 

Some  time  ago  I  was  the  speaker  before  a 
Woman's  Club  in  an  Eastern  city.  At  the 
close  of  my  address  a  member  of  the  club 
took  advantage  of  the  question  period  which 
followed,  and  under  the  guise  of  asking  a 
question  made  a  lengthy  speech,  accusing 
the  immigrant  of  creating  all  the  ills  under 
which  society  suffers.  Above  all  else  she 
accused  him  of  inability  to  enter  sympa- 
thetically into  the  historic  inheritance  of  the 
American  people. 


History  and  the  Nation          153 

When  she  finished,  another  lady  rose  and 
introduced  herself  as  the  principal  of  a 
public  school  in  which  the  children  are 
largely  foreign  born  or  of  foreign  parent- 
age. She  had  seen  many  of  them  grow 
with  the  city's  life,  and  she  vouched  for 
it  that  none  of  the  direful  consequences, 
which  her  fellow  club  member  predicted, 
had  resulted. 

On  the  contrary,  she  continued,  some  of 
the  best  and  most  loyal  citizens  were  those 
who  were  born  abroad  or  whose  parents 
were  born  there.  To  emphasize  their  ability 
to  appreciate  their  new  historic  inheritance, 
she  told  the  following  story  :  "  The  last  bell 
had  rung  and  I  was  about  to  begin  my  work, 
when,  as  I  was  closing  the  door,  I  saw  in  the 
hall,  squeezed  into  a  corner,  a  boy  about 
seven  years  of  age.  I  brought  him  into  the 
room,  and  from  his  appearance  and  the  odors 
which  emanated  from  him  I  felt  sure  that  he 
was  just  from  the  steerage. 

"  He  did  not  know  a  word  of  English,  and 
trembled  from  fright  and  hunger.  The  next 
morning  I  found  him  in  the  hall  again,  lack- 


154          Nationalizing  America 

ing  courage  to  come  in.  Gradually  I  gained 
his  confidence,  and  he  became  one  of  my 
brightest  pupils,  even  developing  a  fondness 
for  soap  and  water."  (I  think  she  exagger- 
ated when  she  said  that ;  for  to  make  a  seven 
year  old  boy  fond  of  soap  and  water  is  little 
short  of  a  miracle.) 

"  After  the  Christmas  vacation  the  boy 
slipped  back  into  his  slovenly  ways,  and 
came  to  school  both  tardy  and  dirty.  Re- 
monstrating with  him,  I  could  get  no  satis- 
factory answer  ;  so  I  went  to  see  his  parents. 
They  assured  me  that  their  son  went  to 
school  earlier  than  usual,  and  complained 
that  he  even  took  no  time  to  say  his 
prayers  ;  "  one  of  the  sad  signs  of  his  Amer- 
icanization. 

She  did  not  believe  them,  for  knowing 
that  the  father  was  poor  and  needed  the 
spare  time  of  his  children,  she  thought  he 
might  not  scruple  to  interfere  with  school 
hours. 

The  boy's  irregularity  and  tardiness  con- 
tinued, until  on  the  morning  of  the  twelfth 
day  of  February  he  did  not  appear  until  the 


History  and  the  Nation          155 

entire  school  was  together  in  the  assembly 
room  for  patriotic  exercises.  In  the  midst  of 
the  program  the  little  boy  entered,  walked 
up  to  the  principal  and  carefully  deposited  a 
package  upon  the  desk.  She  opened  it  and 
found  a  plaster  bust  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  secret  was  out.  The  child  had  gone 
to  the  city  dump  before  and  after  school,  and 
had  collected  saleable  refuse,  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  which  he  bought  this  "Statute  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  "  as  his  tribute  to  the  mar- 
tyred president's  birthday.  This  veneration 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  not  an  isolated  in- 
stance. 

At  another  time,  speaking  before  a  group 
of  librarians  I  urged  the  purchase  of  foreign 
books  for  public  libraries ;  for  I  believe  that 
no  harm  can  result  if  the  immigrant  learns  to 
value  his  own  literary  heritage,  or  if  he  finds 
that  we  value  it  enough  to  give  a  place  in 
our  libraries  to  books  relating  to  it. 

At  the  close  of  my  address,  two  of  the 
librarians  came  to  me  and  told  me  that  while 
my  theory  was  correct,  it  did  not  work.  The 
children  of  the  immigrant  will  not  read  any- 


156          Nationalizing  America 

thing  about  the  men  whose  names  end  in 
ski ;  but  that  they  cannot  get  enough  biog- 
raphies of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  Commonwealth  Steel  Company  of 
Granite  City,  Illinois,  one  of  those  remark- 
able corporations  with  a  soul,  whose  business 
is  rooted  in  the  ideal  of  service,  found  its  for- 
eign laborers  quartered  in  what  was  called 
"  Hungry  Hollow."  This  company  so  ex- 
emplified the  American  spirit  of  fair  play 
that  when  the  foreign  employees  were 
aroused  to  proper  civic  pride,  they  rebap- 
tized  "  Hungry  Hollow "  into  "  Lincoln 
Place,"  because  Lincoln's  spirit  was  mani- 
fested towards  them. 

The  Lincoln  Progressive  Club,  as  they 
named  their  organization,  has  as  its  imme- 
diate aim  the  study  of  the  English  language, 
and  Americanization. 

I  wish  there  might  be  erected  in  every  in- 
dustrial center  a  statue  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
for  masters  and  men  to  see  and  reverence ; 
thus  being  reminded  of  their  duty  towards 
each  other  and  towards  their  common 
country. 


History  and  the  Nation          157 

What  a  people  we  could  become  if  the  im- 
mortal words  he  spoke  were  graven  upon 
the  pedestal  of  such  a  statue :  "  With  malice 
towards  none,  with  charity  towards  all " 
.  .  .  to  greet  our  eyes  daily,  and  to  chal- 
lenge our  conduct. 

The  history  of  the  United  States  since  the 
Civil  War  has  not  yet  been  written,  for  it  is 
the  story  of  an  epoch  just  closing.  It  marks 
the  sudden  leaping  of  a  people  into  wealth  if 
not  into  power  ;  the  fabulous  growth  of  cities, 
the  end  of  the  pioneer  stage,  the  beginning 
of  an  industrial  period,  and  the  pressure  of 
economic  and  social  problems  towards  their 
solution. 

At  least  twenty  millions  of  people  have 
come  full  grown  into  our  national  life  from 
the  steerage,  the  womb  out  of  which  so  many 
of  us  were  born  into  this  newer  life.  Most 
of  us  came  to  build  and  not  to  destroy ;  we 
came  as  helpers  and  not  exploiters ;  we 
brought  virtues  and  vices,  much  good  and 
ill,  and  that,  not  because  we  belonged  to  this 
or  the  other  national  or  racial  group,  but  be- 
cause we  were  human. 


158          Nationalizing  America 

It  is  as  easy  to  prove  that  our  coming 
meant  the  ill  of  the  nation  as  that  it  meant 
its  well-being.  To  appraise  this  fully  is  much 
too  early ;  it  is  a  task  which  must  be  left  to 
our  children's  children,  who  will  be  as  far  re- 
moved from  to-day's  scant  sympathies,  as 
from  its  overwhelming  prejudices. 

The  great  war  has  swung  us  into  the  cur- 
rent of  world  events,  and  it  ought  to  bring 
us  a  larger  vision  of  the  forces  and  processes 
which  shape  the  nations  and  make  their 
peoples.  As  yet  we  are  thinking  hysterically 
rather  than  historically  and  the  indications 
are  that  we  may  not  learn  anything,  nor  yet 
unlearn,  of  which  we  have  perhaps  the  greater 
need. 

Thus  far  we  have  become  narrower  rather 
than  broader,  for  the  feeling  towards  our 
alien  population  is  growing  daily  less  gen- 
erous, and  our  treatment  of  it  less  wise. 

Nor  am  I  sure  in  what  wisdom  consists ; 
the  situation  is  complex ;  for  we  are  the 
Balkan  with  its  national,  racial  and  religious 
contentions.  We  are  Russia  with  its  Ghetto, 
its  Polish  and  Finnish  problem.  We  are 


History  and  the  Nation          159 

Austria  and  Hungary  with  their  linguistic  and 
dynastic  difficulties.  We  are  Africa  and 
Asia  ;  we  are  Jew  and  Gentile  ;  we  are  Prot- 
estant and  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic.  We 
are  everything  out  of  which  to  shape  the 
one  thing,  the  one  nation,  the  one  people. 

Yet  I  am  sure  that  we  cannot  teach  these 
strangers  the  history  of  their  adopted  coun- 
try, and  make  it  their  own,  unless  we  teach 
them  that  our  history  is  theirs  as  well  as  ours, 
and  that  their  traditions  are  ours,  at  least  as 
far  as  they  touch  humanity  generally,  and 
convey  to  all  men  the  blessings  which  come 
from  the  struggle  against  oppression  and 
superstition. 

In  their  inherited,  national  prejudices,  in 
their  racial  hates,  in  their  tribal  quarrels,  we 
wish  to  have  no  share,  except  as  we  hope  to 
help  them  forget  the  old  world  hates  in  the 
new  world's  love. 

None  of  us  who  have  caught  a  vision  of 
what  America  may  mean  to  the  world  wish 
to  perpetuate  here  any  one  phase  of  Europe's 
civilization  or  any  one  national  ideal. 

Although   our  institutions  are  rooted   in 


160          Nationalizing  America 

English  history,  though  we  speak  England's 
language  and  share  her  rich  heritage  of  spir- 
itual and  cultural  wealth,  we  do  not  desire  to 
be  again  a  part  of  England,  or  nourish  here 
her  ideals  of  an  aristocratic  society. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  for  nearly  three 
hundred  years  a  large  part  of  our  population 
has  been  German,  and  that  our  richest  cul- 
tural values  have  come  from  Germany,  in 
spite  of  her  marvellous  resources  in  science, 
commerce  and  government,  we  do  not  care 
to  become  German,  and  I  am  sure  that  Amer- 
icans of  German  blood  or  birth  would  be  the 
first  to  repudiate  it,  should  Germany's  civili- 
zation threaten  to  fasten  itself  upon  us. 

We  do  not  wish  to  be  Russian,  in  spite  of 
certain  values  inherent  in  the  Slavic  char- 
acter, nor  do  we  desire  to  be  French. 

We  do  crave  to  be  an  American  people — 
and  develop  here  an  American  civilization  ; 
but  if  we  are  true  to  the  manifold  genius  of 
our  varied  peoples,  we  may  develop  here  a 
civilization,  richer  and  freer  than  any  one  of 
these,  based  upon  all  of  them,  truly  interna- 
tional and  therefore  American. 


History  and  the  Nation          1 6 1 

Historians  tell  us  that  the  history  of  the 
United  States  illumines  and  illustrates  the 
historic  processes  of  all  ages  and  all  people. 

To  this  they  add  the  disconcerting  proph- 
ecy that  we  are  drifting  towards  the  common 
goal,  and  that  our  doleful  future  can  be 
readily  foretold.  We  have  had  our  hopeful 
morning,  our  swift  and  brilliant  noon,  and 
now  the  dark  and  gruesome  end  threatens  us. 

I  will  not  believe  this  till  I  must. 

I  will  not,  dare  not  lose  the  hope  that  we 
can  make  this  country  to  endure  firmly,  to 
weather  the  storm,  or  at  least  put  off  the 
senility  of  old  age  to  the  last  inevitable 
moment. 

When,  however,  the  end  comes,  as  per- 
haps it  must,  I  pray  that  we  may  project 
our  hopes  and  ideals  upon  the  last  page  of 
our  history,  so  that  it  may  read  thus  :  This 
was  a  state,  the  first  to  grow  by  the  conquest 
of  nature,  and  not  of  nations.  Here  was  de- 
veloped a  commerce  based  upon  service,  and 
not  upon  selfishness ;  a  religion  centering  in 
humanity  and  not  in  a  church. 

Here  was  maintained  sovereignty  without 


1 62          Nationalizing  America 

a  sovereign,  and  here  the  people  of  all  na- 
tions grew  into  one  nation,  held  together  by 
mutual  regard,  not  by  the  force  of  law. 

Here  the  State  was  maintained  by  the  jus- 
tice, confidence  and  loyalty  of  its  people,  and 
not  by  battle-ships  and  armaments.  When 
it  perished  it  was  because  the  people  had 
lost  faith  in  God  and  in  each  other. 


VII 

The  Schools  and  the  Nation 

TO  me  one  of  the  painful  results  of 
the  introspective  mood  into  which 
we  have  fallen  nationally,  has  been 
that  I  found  in  myself  certain  un-Americanized 
spots.  This  was  a  very  painful  discovery ; 
for  I  believed  myself  an  American  through 
and  through,  and  felt  rebellious  whenever 
the  native  suggested  that  I  was  an  alien  by 
birth,  and  therefore  incapable  of  complete 
appreciation  of  his  country  and  devotion  to 
it.  It  hurt  me  to  find  that  my  appetite 
balked  at  mince  pie  when  I  thought  I  had 
nationalized  it  so  completely  as  even  to 
suffer  from  dyspepsia. 

I  also  discovered  myself  incapable  of  en- 
tering into  the  national  mood  by  watching 
with  pleasure  a  game  of  baseball,  and 
though  it  may  be  treason,  I  must  confess 

that   I  do  not  at  this  moment  know  what 
163 


164          Nationalizing  America 

team  has  a  chance  at  the  pennant,  or,  to  my 
greater  shame  be  it  spoken,  do  I  know  the 
difference  between  a  short-stop  and  a  long- 
stop. 

One  day  my  children  may  be  kept  from 
joining  some  patriotic  society  because  their 
father  never  attended  a  National  League 
game,  and  for  their  sakes  I  regret  this 
handicap.  My  son  however  is  making 
amends  for  my  deficiencies.  I  find  that  he 
has  read  Ty  Cobb's  "  Busting  'Em"  at  least 
a  dozen  times  although  he  has  not  gone 
through  his  "  Caesar"  once.  He  is  properly 
ashamed,  too,  of  a  father  who,  when  the 
daily  paper  arrives,  invariably  turns  to  the 
war  news  (tucked  away  these  days  in  a  scant 
column  or  two)  rather  than  to  the  sporting 
news,  commanding  two  full  pages,  though 
Rome  burn,  and  the  price  of  paper  go  up  a 
hundred  per  cent. 

Not  only  am  I  gastronomically  and  athlet- 
ically still  somewhat  of  an  alien;  I  find  myself 
even  more  a  stranger  to  American  methods 
and  ideals  of  education,  and  that  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  for  some  years  I  have  had  a  modest 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       165 

share  in  the  teaching  of  college  youth,  and 
a  somewhat  larger  place  as  a  lecturer  before 
teachers'  assemblies.  It  is  impossible  for  me 
to  think  of  education  as  something  less  than 
a  matter  of  national  concern,  under  national 
control,  and  my  un-Americanized  spot  rebels 
at  the  thought  that  a  school  board,  made 
up  entirely  of  laymen  and  frequently  of  un- 
educated men,  should  decide  the  educational 
weal  and  woe  of  a  given  number  of  children 
just  because  those  children  happen  to  live 
for  the  time  being  in  a  certain  township. 

Three  years  ago  at  a  teachers'  convention 
held  about  a  hundred  miles  from  the  city  of 
St.  Louis,  the  rural  school  superintendents 
discussed  the  following  situation.  The 
school  board  of  a  number  of  districts  was 
made  up  of  men  who,  educationally,  were 
still  in  the  middle  ages.  To  them  the  earth 
was  flat,  and  the  stars  and  planets  were 
lights  placed  in  the  heavens  for  their  own 
particular  convenience. 

They  were  greatly  disconcerted  to  hear 
that  certain  books  called  geographies  taught 
the  heretical  doctrine  that  the  earth  is 


1 66          Nationalizing  America 

round,  and  a  planet  like  others,  its  sole  dis- 
tinction being  that,  as  far  as  we  know,  it 
alone  is  inhabited. 

After  due  deliberation  the  superintend- 
ents came  to  the  wise  conclusion  that  in 
order  to  avoid  a  conflict  or  to  keep  their 
places,  geography  was  to  be  taught  without 
a  text-book,  and  as  if  Copernicus  and  Galileo 
had  not  lived,  or  as  if  their  discoveries  had 
remained  unattested. 

To  me  this  seems  preposterous  and  nation- 
ally disastrous,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
flatness  or  the  roundness  of  the  earth  has  no 
direct  bearing  upon  national  well-being. 
While  this  school  board  attacked  the  validity 
of  geography,  another  with  equal  authority 
denies  the  English  spelling  book  a  place  in 
the  already  meager  curriculum,  and  thou- 
sands of  children  are  growing  up  without 
knowledge  of  the  accepted  language  of  the 
country. 

Recently  I  went  on  a  tour  of  inspection 
through  the  rural  schools  of  one  of  the 
wealthiest  sections  of  the  United  States. 
The  county  superintendent,  a  man  of  un- 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       167 

usual  educational  attainments,  was  my  guide. 
In  this  county  there  are  seventy-two  inde- 
pendent school  districts,  many  of  them  com- 
posed entirely  of  people  of  foreign  birth. 

There  is  no  educational  plan,  no  uniformity 
as  to  text-books,  curriculum,  the  length  of  the 
school  year,  or  the  salary  paid  the  teachers. 
In  one  of  the  foreign  colonies,  where  there 
are  seven  schools,  the  English  spelling  book 
is  McGuffey's  oldest  edition,  used  presumably 
because  it  is  the  cheapest.  The  German 
books  are  still  older,  compiled  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  were  one 
of  the  schoolmasters  of  Frederick  the  Great 
to  come  down  from  his  heavenly  abode, 
where  let  us  hope  he  is,  he  would  be 
thoroughly  at  home.  None  of  the  children 
under  ten  speaks  a  word  of  English,  the 
older  ones  speak  it  with  difficulty,  and  the 
teacher  explained  to  them  that  "  where  and 
were,  though  they  are  pronounced  alike,  are 
spelled  differently." 

The  ideal  of  the  school  is  to  prepare  its 
pupils  to  become  obedient  members  of  the 
colony,  and  to  provide  them  with  no  knowl- 


1 68          Nationalizing  America 

edge  which  might  lift  the  veil  of  ignorance 
and  superstition  from  their  brains.  Of  their 
responsibility  to  the  nation  they  learn  little 
or  nothing,  and  they  are  growing  up  as 
strangers  in  the  midst  of  this  American 
commonwealth,  which  gave  their  parents 
asylum  from  persecution,  and  the  richest 
land  in  the  state  for  a  little  more  than  the 
asking. 

Outside  these  colonies  the  educational 
ideals  are  not  much  better,  and  the  school 
equipment  is  upon  the  same  niggardly  scale. 
The  minimum  salary  is  thirty-three  dollars, 
and  rises  to  the  munificent  sum  of  fifty-five, 
on  the  whole  a  little  less  than  the  average 
wages  paid  a  hired  man.  The  superin- 
tendent has  no  control  over  the  public 
schools,  except  that  he  may  refuse  teaching 
certificates  to  those  who  are  totally  unfit. 
His  office  being  elective,  he  has  to  be  careful 
how  he  exercises  even  this  prerogative. 

Neither  the  county  nor  the  state  and  of 
course  not  the  nation  can  speak  with  any 
authoritative  voice  about  what  shall  be 
taught  these  children,  who  will  always  re- 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       169 

main  more  or  less  strangers  to  the  national 
life.  Indeed  I  have  discovered  that  not  only 
is  there  no  full  authority  to  say  who  shall 
teach ;  no  one  seems  to  know  just  what  shall 
be  taught  to  bring  about  the  development  of 
wholesome,  national  ideals  in  these  potential 
citizens. 

Some  time  ago  I  watched  a  group  of  high 
school  students  who  were  spending  their 
precious  hours  in  charge  of  a  teacher  not 
much  older  than  themselves.  They  paid  no 
more  attention  to  what  she  said  than  if  she 
had  not  existed,  and  were  a  positive  menace 
to  the  few  who  were  students  by  natural  in- 
clination. 

There  was  one  particularly  inattentive  boy 
who  drove  the  poor  child  of  a  teacher  nearly 
into  hysterics.  He  was  then  in  his  third 
year  in  the  high  school,  had  never  made 
more  than  a  passing  grade,  and  how  he 
managed  to  get  that  the  teacher  did  not 
know. 

I  spoke  to  the  principal  about  him,  and  he 
admitted  that  the  boy  ought  not  to  be  in 
that  school ;  but  he  said  :  "  He  is  better  off 


170          Nationalizing  America 

here  than  on  the  streets.  We  shall  keep  him 
to  make  a  good  citizen  out  of  him." 

What  the  principal  meant  by  a  good 
citizen  he  himself  did  not  know ;  how  he 
could  make  a  good  citizen  out  of  a  boy  who 
was  neither  obedient  nor  reverent,  and  would 
not  be  held  to  his  task,  he  could  not  tell. 
The  fact  is  that  it  is  an  empty  phrase  which 
covers  "  a  multitude  of  sins." 

I  find  myself  equally  in  discord  with  Amer- 
ican educational  ideals  when  I  hear  the  dis- 
cussion of  specialists,  of  whom  we  have  easily 
produced  a  surplus,  and  whose  chief  en- 
deavor seems  to  be  to  instruct  teachers  how 
to  teach  so  that  the  child  does  not  know 
that  he  is  being  taught.  In  fact  the  whole 
tendency  in  American  schools  seems  to  be 
to  turn  work  into  play,  and  play  into  work. 
There  must  be  no  rigor,  no  pressure,  no  con- 
scious effort  in  the  teaching  of  mathematics ; 
the  child  must  be  taught  unawares. 

Algebra  must  descend  upon  its  head  as 
dew  drops  upon  the  flowers,  and  history  and 
geography  must  be  wafted  about  him  to  be 
breathed  in,  like  perfume. 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       171 

Work,  real,  hard  effort  and  discipline  for 
the  body  are  required  only  in  athletics,  where 
a  boy  must  learn  to  obey  without  question, 
and  put  forth  conscious  energy  to  gain 
certain  results. 

I  am  confused  and  pained  when  I  listen  to 
these  specialists,  each  one  with  his  pet  hobby, 
if  not  his  pet  text-book. 

At  a  teachers'  convention  I  saw  about  five 
hundred  teachers  listening  for  two  hours  to 
a  demonstration  upon  the  Victrola,  showing 
how  to  teach  children  musical  appreciation 
without  their  knowing  anything  about  music. 
It  was  a  pleasant  way  for  the  teachers  to 
spend  two  hours,  but  they  had  been  taught 
nothing  of  value,  and  could  teach  nothing  of 
value  as  a  result. 

Less  pleasant  and  perhaps  less  profitable 
was  the  lecture  which  followed,  upon  how  to 
keep  the  child  unconscious  of  the  fact  that 
he  is  being  taught  mathematics.  I  have 
even  heard  a  lecture  upon  manual  training 
without  work,  and  the  study  of  chemistry  by 
absorption. 

Doubtless  much  that  is  fruitful  comes  from 


172          Nationalizing  America 

this  constant  experimentation  with  the  na- 
tion's children ;  but  in  many  cases,  the  ex- 
periments hide  ignorance  rather  than  reveal 
a  desire  for  knowledge. 

Our  children  are  the  happiest  in  the  world  ; 
yet  a  clear-sighted  mother  characterized  as 
"  organized  frivolity  "  the  curriculum  of  the 
school  to  which  she  sent  her  daughter. 

Is  it  not  high  time  for  us  to  realize  that 
while  we  should  make  our  children  happy, 
we  must  teach  them  that  the  highest  joy  con- 
sists in  doing  their  work  well,  and  in  a  de- 
portment which  gives  other  people  a  chance 
at  happiness  ?  We  have  followed  the  Great 
Teacher's  example  and  have  "  put  the  child 
in  the  midst " ;  but  we  have  gone  much 
farther.  We  have  given  it  the  whole  stage 
and  have  entirely  crowded  out  parents,  so- 
ciety, the  state  and  the  nation. 

Is  it  not  essential  that  the  child  should 
learn  to  obey  the  teacher  rather  than  that  the 
teacher  must  adjust  himself  to  the  whims  of 
each  child  ?  If  we  could  develop  the  sense 
of  obedience  and  reverence  in  the  class-room, 
we  should  not  have  to  worry  over  the  ques- 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       173 

tion  of  military  training,  a  doubtful  expedi- 
ent, which  even  the  most  militaristic  nations 
have  repudiated.  It  is  true  that  much  can 
be  taught  by  play,  but  life  is  not  play,  and 
living  right  is  a  severe  task.  Much  can 
be  accomplished  by  persuasion,  but  the  law 
is  imperious,  the  nation  commands,  and  op- 
portunity does  not  stop  to  cajole. 

Back  of  the  indulgent,  ineffective  school 
is  its  replica,  the  almost  anarchic,  American 
home,  the  undisciplined  parents,  over  in- 
dulgent and  without  authority,  to  guard 
the  health  or  the  morals  of  its  children.  The 
state  cannot  reform  the  home,  but  it  can 
reform  the  schools  in  which  the  parents  of 
to-morrow  are  being  trained.  The  school 
must  receive  power  from  somewhere  to 
check  social  excesses  and  the  resultant  phys- 
ical degeneration  of  our  youth  ;  to  call  in  the 
boys  and  girls  from  the  side  lines,  where 
eleven  overtrained  boys  are  making  a  Ro- 
man holiday  for  them,  and  furnishing  exer- 
cise for  their  lungs  only. 

From  somewhere,  and  God  alone  knows 
from  where,  the  colleges  will  have  to  get 


174          Nationalizing  America 

enough  sense  to  lead  in  this  reform,  for  their 
custom  and  spirit  percolate  down  through  the 
high  schools,  where  the  worst  of  our  college 
life  is  imitated  and  frequently  intensified. 

Colleges  which  continue  to  live  and  to 
teach  as  if  nothing  had  happened  in  August 
of  nineteen  hundred  and  fourteen,  which 
shift  the  whole  of  their  responsibility  to  the 
nation,  upon  a  military  officer,  are  in  con- 
tempt of  the  spirit  of  our  time. 

Most  probably  the  trouble  with  our  public 
schools  is  not  only  in  the  independent  school 
district,  wasteful  in  money  and  barren  of 
good  results.  It  is  not  in  the  experimental 
period  through  which  we  have  been  passing, 
or  rather  in  which  we  are  living ;  for  there 
are  no  indications  that  we  shall  ever  pass  out 
of  it.  It  is  not  even  in  the  anarchic,  Amer- 
ican home,  nor  in  the  colleges  which  have 
led  in  their  emphasis  upon  electives,  and 
the  dominance  of  vicarious  athletics.  For 
the  inadequacy  of  our  public  schools,  the 
responsibility  rests  largely  in  the  vast  army 
of  teachers  unfitted  for  their  task. 

I  have  a  profound  feeling  of  pity  for  the 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       175 

boys  and  girls  of  America  when  I  watch 
their  teachers,  who  crowd  our  summer 
schools,  eager  to  snatch  as  much  learning 
as  possible  in  the  scant  six  weeks,  and  im- 
mersed in  a  bewildering  number  of  classes, 
getting  much  new  enthusiasm  and  more  new 
theories,  but  a  meager  increase  of  their  stock 
of  knowledge. 

In  fact  I  see  among  them  a  large  number 
unfit  to  teach,  and  the  school  authorities 
know  that  they  are  not  now  and  never  will 
be  effective  teachers.  They  must  not  be  dis- 
charged, for  either  they  are  cheap  (which  fact 
is  still  considered  a  recommendation  in  my 
own  state,  with  its  automobile  to  every  ten 
inhabitants)  or  if  they  are  not  cheap  they 
have  a  "  pull,"  and  both  cheapness  and  a 
"  pull  "  avail  much  in  training  the  children  of 
a  nation  which  has  just  voted  a  paltry  three 
hundred  million  dollars  for  its  naval  program. 

How  thoroughly  un-Americanized  I  am, 
and  how  incapable  of  understanding  the 
situation,  is  illustrated  in  the  following  in- 
cident. I  was  asked  to  deliver  a  series  of 
lectures  before  a  state  teachers'  association. 


176          Nationalizing  America 

On  the  last  day,  the  managers  of  a  certain 
political  party  requested  that  the  evening 
session  be  given  over  to  the  aspirant  for  a 
high  political  office,  who  was  to  be  in  the 
city.  This  the  convention  refused  to  do, 
but  offered  to  give  up  the  hall  at  nine 
o'clock,  after  the  regular  program,  which 
included  my  lecture. 

To  this  they  agreed,  but  before  my  lecture 
was  half  over  the  doors  of  the  hall  were 
forced  open,  and  a  surging  mob  poured 
in,  crowded  the  aisles,  and  occupied  every 
available  inch  of  the  already  crowded  plat- 
form. Then  they  began  calling  for  the 
famous  politician.  I  was  ready  to  capitu- 
late and  sat  down,  but  the  teachers  insisted 
that  I  continue,  and  called  just  as  loudly 
for  me. 

In  the  midst  of  the  clamor  I  arose  and 
addressed  myself  to  "  My  fellow  citizens "  ; 
for  although  I  had  never  addressed  a  polit- 
ical assembly  before,  I  knew  how  to  begin. 
This  did  not  quiet  the  tumult,  but  when  I 
began  to  talk  of  the  grandeur  of  their  state, 
and  told  them  of  their  "  cattle  upon  a  thou- 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       1 77 

sand  hills  "  (although  they  have  nothing  but 
a  few  sand-hills  upon  which  the  cattle  would 
starve)  the  mob  grew  attentive,  and  after  a 
few  more  approved  compliments,  I  told 
them  something  which  they  all  knew,  but 
did  not  expect  to  hear. 

I  told  them  that  when  this  particular 
political  party,  under  whose  auspices  we 
were  assembled,  came  into  power,  it  im- 
mediately proceeded  to  corrupt  and  wreck 
the  schools  of  the  state.  Presidents  and 
professors  in  the  university  and  various 
colleges  were  discharged,  although  many  of 
them  had  done  difficult,  pioneer  educational 
work,  and  some  of  them  had  risen  to  na- 
tional appreciation  in  their  departments. 
Their  sole  offense  was  that  they  belonged 
to  another  political  party. 

I  told  this  to  them  frankly,  if  not  brutally ; 
fearlessly  certainly,  and  impressed  upon  them 
the  fact  that  they  had  no  right  to  talk  about 
good  citizenship  when  they  had  corrupted 
the  very  institution  which  is  fundamental  in 
its  creation  and  maintenance. 

At   nine   o'clock,   at  the   agreed   time,   I 


178          Nationalizing  America 

finished,  and  the  meeting  was  turned  over  to 
the  politicians.  My  friends  told  me  after- 
wards that  they  were  afraid  I  would  be 
mobbed,  but  nothing  of  the  kind  happened 
and  I  was  permitted  to  go  unmolested  to  my 
hotel.  There  a  man  asked  to  meet  me  and 
we  went  to  my  room.  He  was  rather  rough 
looking,  suggesting  the  cowboy  type,  and  I 
imagined  that  I  saw  his  hip  pocket  bulging 
menacingly.  He  offered  me  tobacco  in  two 
forms,  which  somewhat  reassured  me,  and 
after  putting  his  feet  upon  the  table  he  said  : 
"  Say,  you've  got  a  lot  of  gall  to  talk  the 
way  you  did."  I  braced  myself  for  what  was 
still  to  come,  and  he  continued  :  "  But  you 
were  dead  right.  I  am  teaching  psychology 
in  one  of  the  colleges  and  I  don't  know  a 

thing  about  it ;  but  I  am  a  good 

Democrat." 

I  have  never  met  a  similar  situation,  and 
I  doubt  that  in  its  bald,  brutal  form  it  could 
be  repeated  ;  but  this  unholy  alliance  between 
political  parties  and  the  public  schools,  from 
the  State  University  down,  still  exists. 

In  not  a  few  cities  in  the  United  States  it 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       179 

is  the  first  task  of  the  school  superintendent 
to  construct  a  machine,  control  one  or  be- 
come a  part  of  one ;  and  many  a  president 
of  a  State  University  has  lost  his  position  be- 
cause he  was  a  scholar  and  a  gentleman,  and 
not  just  a  politician.  The  school  system  of 
many  an  American  city  has  been  all  but 
wrecked  by  a  change  of  political  party.  Ap- 
proved teachers  have  been  thrown  out  of 
employment,  and  a  new  curriculum  and  dif- 
ferent text-books  have  been  introduced  to 
satisfy  some  one's  whim,  or  for  some  one's 
political  profit. 

Probably  my  inability  to  enter  sympathet- 
ically or  understandingly  into  the  educational 
chaos  of  the  United  States,  springs  from  the 
fact  that  I  was  trained  in  schools  which  were 
part  of  a  national  program,  were  regarded  as 
fundamental  in  the  development  of  certain 
national  ideals,  and  whose  product  for  better 
or  for  worse  was  stamped  with  the  national 
spirit. 

I  am  not  sure  that  this  is  possible  with  the 
schools  of  this  country  ;  but  if  we  wish  to 
develop  some  common,  national  ideals ;  if 


180          Nationalizing  America 

we  wish  to  make  the  nation  as  a  whole 
capable  of  taking  its  place  in  the  competitive 
struggle  of  the  nations  sure  to  grow  stronger 
rather  than  weaker,  we  must  first  of  all  and 
above  all  learn  to  think  of  the  public  schools 
as  a  national  institution,  and  under  some 
form  of  national  authority. 

In  all  the  current  discussion  of  prepared- 
ness the  schools  were  drawn  in  only  from  the 
standpoint  of  military  training,  an  encum- 
brance from  which  the  most  militaristic 
nations  have  left  their  schools  free,  realizing 
that  there  is  something  much  more  funda- 
mental which  the  public  schools  must 
achieve. 

The  one  or  two  or  three  hours  which  can 
at  best  be  spared  for  military  drill,  which  in 
modern  warfare  is  growing  to  be  of  less  and 
less  significance,  cannot  offset  the  defects  of 
a  system  which  must  adjust  itself  to  the 
whims  of  a  child,  the  fortunes  of  political 
parties,  the  narrow  vision  of  school  boards, 
and  the  racial  or  religious  convictions  of  its 
patrons. 

Incapable  as  I  have  confessed  myself   of 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       1 8 1 

understanding  our  confused  educational 
ideals,  or  of  properly  appraising  our  meth- 
ods, my  suggestions  may  have  little  or  no 
value ;  nevertheless  I  offer  them  for  considera- 
tion. 

It  seems  to  me,  first  of  all,  that  we  need  to 
gather  up  the  results,  if  results  there  are,  and 
come  to  some  kind  of  conclusion  as  to  what 
a  public  school  education  is.  We  should  be 
able  to  say  authoritatively  what  our  children 
ought  to  know  when  they  have  finished  the 
public  schools,  and  we  should  be  able  to  say 
that,  regardless  of  what  the  entrance  require- 
ments for  the  colleges  may  be. 

The  men  who  have  contributed  to  this  re- 
sult should  be  given  opportunity  for  further 
experiment.  It  is  high  time  to  spoil  the 
business  of  the  charlatan,  and  stop  spoiling 
the  educational  career  of  our  children. 

Secondly,  we  need  to  develop  a  national 
educational  program,  so  that  every  child 
shall  have  an  opportunity  to  get  this  mini- 
mum of  education. 

The  present  wasteful  and  ineffective,  inde- 
pendent school  district,  this  nursery  of  the 


1 82          Nationalizing  America 

political  boss,  must  go.  Its  virtues,  if  it  has 
any,  are  far  outweighed  by  its  faults.  The 
parochial  school,  if  it  persists,  must,  in  its 
secular  teaching,  come  under  the  supervision 
of  the  state.  If  the  making  of  good  Ameri- 
can citizens  is  the  goal  of  our  educational 
system,  and  if  this  means  that  we  are  to  train 
our  children  so  that  they  will  appreciate  their 
national  inheritance,  what  are  we  to  teach 
them? 

If  they  are  to  know  the  meaning  of  liberty, 
and  understand  the  spirit  of  democracy,  and 
if  they  are  to  learn  to  cooperate  with  others  in 
the  development  of  our  national  institutions, 
who  is  to  teach  them  ? 

Can  we  safely  leave  that  to  churches  with 
their  own  national  background,  to  societies 
which  wish  to  maintain  their  own  racial  and 
linguistic  inheritance? 

Thirdly,  we  need  to  foster  the  physical 
well-being  of  the  child, — which  now  as  never 
before  belongs  not  to  itself,  not  to  its  parents, 
but  to  the  nation 

A  nation,  whether  it  goes  to  war  or  not, 
needs  to  be  concerned  about  the  physical 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       183 

well-being  of  its  children,  and  that  means 
something  more  than  building  sanitary 
schoolhouses,  and  taking  precaution  against 
infectious  diseases. 

We  are  prodigal  with  wealth  and  with  the 
making  of  laws ;  but  we  are  niggardly  with 
effort.  To  make  our  boys  and  girls  virile, 
strong  enough  to  stand  the  strain  of  our 
modern  life,  to  become  wholesome  parents 
of  the  next  generation,  takes  effort,  more 
than  money ;  it  takes  a  high  and  serious  pur- 
pose and  not  new  taxes  which  are  so  easily 
voted. 

If  it  is  a  fact  that  seventy  per  cent,  of  those 
who  recently  offered  themselves  for  military 
service  were  pronounced  physically  unfit  (and 
no  doubt  if  the  percentage  is  correct,  it  does 
not  tell  the  whole  truth)  it  means  a  national 
menace. 

I  am  not  sure  that  we  are  degenerating 
physically,  but  it  is  true  that  too  many  of  our 
boys  slink  along  rather  than  walk,  that  they 
carry  their  hands  in  their  pockets,  and  are 
stoop-shouldered.  Too  many  of  them  have 
their  health  ruined  by  cigarettes  and  by 


184          Nationalizing  America 

social  excesses  in  which  their  parents  often 
encourage  them,  and  many,  far  too  many, 
leave  the  schoolroom  too  early,  and  have  to 
engage  in  labor  which  impairs  their  health. 

We  need  to  cultivate  some  form  of  phys- 
ical training  which  shall  become  the  national 
norm,  and  be  adapted  to  the  national  needs. 
This  should  develop  not  only  the  wholesome 
physical  sense  of  the  individual  but  also  his 
sense  of  cooperation,  not  with  a  team,  or  a 
class  or  a  school ;  but  with  the  nation  as  a 
whole.  The  boy  scout  movement,  and  that 
of  the  camp-fire  girls,  are  a  step  in  the  right 
direction. 

Fourth  :  As  a  whole  people,  we  must  learn 
to  believe  that  while  bodily  fitness  is  neces- 
sary for  the  national  well-being,  we  must 
also  know  that  the  nation  which  is  to  main- 
tain its  place,  or  assume  leadership  of  other 
people,  will  do  so,  not  by  its  physical  power 
alone,  if  at  all ;  but  by  the  power  of  ideals 
capable  of  realization  ;  which  means  that  it 
will  lead  or  rule  by  the  power  of  a  well- 
trained,  humanized  intellect. 

It  is  only  a  superficial  and  biased  observer 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       185 

who  will  say  that  the  remarkable  display  of 
national  efficiency  by  Germany  in  the  face 
of  tremendous  odds  is  due  to  a  certain  form 
of  government,  to  coercion  by  an  autocracy. 
It  is  due  to  the  submission  of  the  German 
people  to  highly  trained  specialists  in  all  de- 
partments of  life  and  activity.  From  the 
Kaiser  in  command  of  the  whole  army  to 
the  corporal  in  command  of  a  dozen  men, 
they  are  the  product  of  a  system,  which  trains 
men  for  positions  and  definite  results. 

Nothing  is  so  pathetic,  because  so  self- 
revealing,  as  the  aversion  of  the  average 
American  child  to  study.  Not  only  is  it  not 
a  disgrace  to  fail  in  effort  and  achievement ; 
it  is  no  special  honor  to  succeed.  This  is  a 
profound  pity ;  for  while  the  nation  may 
need  fighters  some  time,  it  will  need  thinkers 
all  the  time. 

During  the  Russo-Japanese  War  I  was 
travelling  in  the  Volga  region.  A  Russian 
soldier  whom  I  knew  came  hobbling  along 
on  one  leg,  begging  for  a  little  tea  money. 
I  gave  it  to  him  on  the  promise  that  he 
would  tell  me  about  the  war. 


1 86          Nationalizing  America 

"  It  was  this  way,  Barin,"  he  said.  "  Our 
officers  told  us  that  we  were  big  Russian 
giants,  and  that  these  little,  yellow  Japanese 
monkeys  would  run  when  they  saw  us 
coming. 

"  They  did  run,  Barin,  but  they  ran  after 
us.  You  know  the  Japanese  fought  with 
their  heads  and  we  fought  with  our  fists ; 
they  hitched  their  donkeys  to  their  wagons, 
and  we  made  officers  of  ours." 

In  the  long  run,  wars  are  lost  or  won  in 
the  schoolroom,  and  we  must  teach  our 
children  to  think  seriously,  achieve  thor- 
oughly, and  hate  mediocrity.  We  must 
make  them  understand  that  to  merely  "  get 
by  "  is  as  cowardly  as  to  sneak  away  from 
a  conflict. 

Lastly,  and  that  seems  to  me  the  most 
important  thing,  we  need  to  bend  every 
effort  to  secure  for  the  nation's  children 
effective  instructors.  Teaching  must  be 
saved  from  its  dilettantism,  and  made  a 
profession.  Training  schools  must  be  held 
to  a  high  standard,  minimum  salary  laws 
extended,  and  pension  systems  created. 


The  Schools  and  the  Nation       187 

This  is  an  ambitious  and  difficult  program, 
but  not  unattainable  ;  because  the  teachers 
themselves  are  interested  in  all  these  prob- 
lems and  are  most  eager  for  these  reforms. 

As  a  whole,  I  have  found  the  teachers 
of  America  open  minded,  honest,  unselfish, 
eager  and  idealistic  ;  splendid  material  with 
which  to  construct  a  national  educational 
program.  They  have  lacked  the  power  to 
project  their  needs  and  ideals  upon  the  na- 
tion's attention.  If  we  could  preserve  the 
idealism  of  our  public  school  teachers,  and 
couple  with  it  effective  teaching  power,  we 
would  be  most  adequately  prepared  edu- 
cationally. 

Perhaps  salvation  will  have  to  come  from 
the  teachers  themselves,  just  as  the  reforms 
of  the  church  have  come  through  her  priest- 
hood and  her  ministry.  Before  the  public 
will  listen  to  them,  they  will  have  to  be 
desperately  in  earnest ;  they  must  learn  to 
despise  the  mere  place  hunter,  the  political 
henchman,  the  Judases  of  their  Apostolate. 

I  know  the  temper  of  the  American  people, 
and  I  feel  sure  that  there  will  be  an  instant 


1 88          Nationalizing  America 

response  to  the  prophetic  voices  among 
them.  We  are  living  at  a  time  when  there 
is  a  growing  impatience  with  the  confusion 
in  our  educational  life,  and  we  are  beginning 
to  understand  that  we  cannot  develop  high 
national  ideals  when  the  source  of  those 
ideals,  the  nursery  of  our  high  thought,  is 
either  incompetent  or  corrupt,  or  both. 


VIII 

The  Churches  and  the  Nation 

IT  is  idle  but  interesting  to  speculate  what 
would  have  been  the  future  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  if  Constantine  had  not 
adored  as  God,  the  Nazarene  whom  another 
Caesar  had  crucified  in  one  of  Rome's  re- 
bellious provinces.  Would  it  have  survived 
if  it  had  insisted  upon  its  international  char- 
acter, and  refused  to  give  its  sons  to  further 
the  empire's  schemes  of  conquest  ?  Could  it 
have  lived  with  its  dream  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  and  faced  martyrdom  without  final 
extinction  ?  Would  Caesar's  power  have  pre- 
vailed against  the  Christ's?  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  it  was  so  rooted  in  the  need 
of  the  human  soul,  and  so  satisfied  the  higher 
demands  of  the  race,  that  it  could  not  have 
been  crushed  completely. 

It  would  have  lived,  whether  smouldering 

among    the    oppressed,   slumbering   in   the 
189 


190          Nationalizing  America 

hearts  of  dreamers,  struggling  to  be  born 
again  in  stables  and  tenements,  revealed  in 
drear  midnights  to  weary  shepherds  or 
sweat-shop  workers.  It  would  have  been 
sought  for,  at  last,  by  those  who  always 
come  last ;  by  wise  men,  in  those  periods 
which  we  call  the  "  fullness  of  time,"  and 
then  preached  by  a  lowly  and  foolish  apos- 
tolate. 

Persecutions  would  have  been  unceasing  ; 
but  faiths  thrive  best  when  they  must  strug- 
gle to  live,  and  the  genius  for  martyrdom  is 
one  of  the  distinguishing  marks  of  the  race. 

In  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  much  of 
the  international  character  of  Christianity 
has  survived,  both  in  its  spirit  and  organi- 
zation. If  this  sense  of  universality  is  more 
Roman  than  Christian,  it  only  shares  with 
all  other  institutions  and  individuals  the  de- 
sire for  conquest  and  dominion,  rather  than 
for  service  and  sacrifice.  It  shows  the  power 
of  those  active,  primitive  passions,  and  the 
desire  for  pomp  and  glory,  over  the  passive 
virtues  of  Christianity,  as  well  as  their  in- 
sistence upon  simplicity  and  humility. 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     191 

For  many  centuries  the  Church  was  the 
guardian  and  not  the  servant  of  the  state. 
She  had  the  keeping  of  the  crown,  and 
kings  wore  it  by  her  suffrance.  At  the 
zenith  of  her  power  she  could  humble  the 
monarch  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  by 
bidding  him  come  to  her  barefoot,  like  a 
beggar,  thus  proving  her  theory  of  the 
supremacy  of  church  over  state. 

If  this  Church  State  which  she  created 
had  been  a  Christian  State,  it  would  have 
been  well  with  the  world  ;  but  the  ideal  was 
never  realized.  It  proved  a  long  contention 
between  two  forces  in  which  the  state  was 
finally  the  victor.  The  union  between  Church 
and  state  which  had  existed  since  the  time  of 
Constantine,  with  now  the  one  or  the  other 
as  master,  was  strongly  opposed  by  Martin 
Luther.  "It  is  in  my  heart  that  these  two 
regiments  of  the  world  and  of  the  spirit,  the 
Church  and  the  state,  shall  be  kept  separate." 

Not  only  did  he  fail  to  realize  his  ideal ; 
he  put  the  administration  of  the  Church 
under  the  care  of  the  temporal  ruler  Just 
as  the  state  was  dominated  by  the  Church 


192          Nationalizing  America 

and  so  nearly  lost  all  its  civil  power,  the 
Church  in  turn,  through  the  state,  was 
threatened  by  the  loss  of  its  spiritual 
authority.  Both  in  the  Church  State  and 
in  the  State  Church,  nationality  triumphed 
over  Christianity. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  at  all 
times  been  an  invaluable  aid  to  civil  author- 
ity by  the  obedience  she  enforces,  and  the 
reverence  she  teaches.  The  value  she  places 
upon  ceremonies  and  symbols  has  created  a 
fine  atmosphere  in  which  to  develop  the 
virtue  of  patriotism. 

The  fear  often  expressed  in  so  many 
countries,  and  which  has  never  been  justi- 
fied, is  that  national  loyalty  would  be 
weakened  because  an  Italian  is  head  of 
the  Church,  all  the  members  of  which  owe 
him  unquestioning  obedience  in  matters  of 
faith,  and  because  he  claims  political  sover- 
eignty over  the  Papal  state. 

The  Pope  may  anathematize  modernists 
and  refuse  to  shrive  those  who  have  re- 
nounced their  faith  in  the  dogmas  he  de- 
crees ;  but  he  has  no  power  over  those  war 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     193 

lords  who  disturb  the  peace  of  the  world  and 
repudiate  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 

The  present  war,  although  it  began  in 
Austria,  whose  monarch  is  the  most  loyal 
spiritual  subject  of  the  Church,  could  not  be 
averted  by  the  Pope,  one  of  the  most  high- 
minded  men  who  ever  sat  upon  the  fisher- 
man's throne.  He  cannot  mitigate  its  cruel- 
ties, or  keep  Austrian  bombs  from  destroying 
the  historic  churches  of  France  and  Northern 
Italy. 

The  Protestant  state  of  Prussia  claims  the 
unhesitating  allegiance  of  its  Roman  Cath- 
olic subjects,  and  Roman  Catholic  soldiers 
invaded  and  devastated  the  Roman  Catholic 
cities  of  Belgium ;  neither  priests,  nor  nuns,  nor 
yet  churches  being  spared  death  or  destruc- 
tion when  military  necessity  demanded  either. 

French  priests,  deprived  of  their  living  by 
an  anti-clerical  government,  are  marching 
with  the  troops,  carrying  guns,  and  ready  to 
forgive  their  enemies  after  they  have  killed 
them.  Jesuits  have  joined  the  German  col- 
ors, and  Austria's  Servian  priests  are  inciting 
their  parishioners  to  fight  against  those  of 


194          Nationalizing  America 

their  race  whose  dream  of  a  larger  Serb-em- 
bracing kingdom  has  precipitated  the  war. 

The  fact  is  that  everywhere  nationality  has 
triumphed  over  religion  and  race,  the  polit- 
ical bond  being  the  strongest  to  hold  to- 
gether portions  of  mankind.  Men  every- 
where are  ready  to  die  for  their  king  and 
country,  as  once  they  knew  how  to  die  for 
God  and  their  kin.  The  patriotism  gendered 
in  those  countries  in  which  the  Protestant 
Church  has  authority  is  not  different,  except 
perhaps  that,  lacking  the  international  bond, 
it  leans  more  strongly  upon  the  state. 

From  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  where 
schismatic  churches  are  tolerated  they  en- 
courage independence,  which  may  lead  to 
revolt  against  the  tyrant,  and  they  are  sup- 
pressed wherever  autocratic  government  pre- 
vails. Only  one  body  of  Protestant  Chris- 
tians has  faced  national  displeasure  by  openly 
declaring  its  opposition  to  war  and  has  borne 
its  testimony  against  it,  regarding  the  law  of 
God  as  more  binding  than  the  law  of  the 
country.  The  Friends  suffer  under  one  seri- 
ous handicap  which  prevents  their  protest 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     195 

from  being  effective ;  their  number  is  too 
small.  However,  they  have  spiritual  kins- 
men in  nearly  all  the  warring  countries. 

There  are  large  numbers  in  Hungary  who 
call  themselves  Nazarenes,  who  have  suffered 
death  rather  than  bear  arms  against  their 
fellows,  though  they  were  ready  to  mitigate 
the  horrors  of  war  by  serving  with  the  am- 
bulances or  in  hospitals. 

In  Russia  the  Duckoborzy  and  kindred 
sectarians  have  been  sent  into  exile  for  their 
faith,  and  how  many  of  them  have  suffered 
most  cruel  death,  in  prisons  and  in  Cossack 
raids,  will  never  be  known.  Their  protest, 
too,  has  been  ineffective,  at  least  in  their  own 
time,  just  as  has  always  been  the  case  when 
men  believe  the  words  of  Jesus  binding  only 
upon  belief  and  not  upon  conduct.  Their 
great  kinsman  Tolstoy  is  dead ;  that  true  be- 
liever in  the  words  of  Jesus.  He  who  lifted 
his  voice  against  a  pagan  civilization  which 
called  itself  Christian,  and  against  a  Church, 
the  servile  servant  of  a  state  which  com- 
mitted sacrilege  by  calling  itself  Holy  Russia, 
is  no  more,  and  he  left  no  successor. 


196          Nationalizing  America 

It  is  certainly  pathetic  to  find  that  in  Prot- 
estant England  the  one  far-reaching  voice 
raised  against  the  horrors  of  war  and  its  cruel 
reprisals  is  that  of  the  cynic,  Bernard  Shaw. 
He  would  have  his  country  give  the  Christi- 
anity of  Jesus  a  trial,  while  the  bishops  of  Eng- 
land frame  new  prayers  to  fan  the  battle  flame. 

The  Jew,  Maximilian  Harden,  endangers 
his  liberty  and  his  economic  position  by 
speaking  well  of  the  English,  and  counselling 
peace;  while  German  congregations,  be- 
tween singing  "  Fairest  Lord  Jesus "  and 
"  Deutschland  uber  Alles"  are  exhorted  to 
fight  against  the  English,  the  enemies  of 
God  as  well  as  of  the  Kaiser,  and  are  taught 
that  the  interests  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
and  the  Fatherland  are  identical. 

Even  those  churches  furthest  from  the 
throne,  which  as  schismatics  were  under  sus- 
picion, if  not  under  royal  displeasure,  and 
whose  international  feeling  was  fostered  be- 
cause of  their  connection  with  similar  bodies 
in  the  United  States  and  in  England,  even 
they  have  succumbed  to  this  wave  of  hate. 
Their  simple  evangelical  faith,  and  their 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     1 97 

primitive  Christian  practices  have  not  saved 
them  from  the  contagion  of  battle  fever. 
Christians  face  Christians  in  the  trenches, 
and  in  destroying  one  another  have  called 
to  their  aid  "  Moslems,  Buddhists,  Shintoists, 
Cossacks,  Turks,  Japanese,  Singalese,  Sou- 
danese, Senegalese,  Morrocans,  Egyptians, 
Sikhs  and  Sepoys,  barbarians  from  the  poles 
and  those  from  the  equator,  souls  and  bodies 
of  all  colors."  Those  whom  they  could  not 
or  would  not  unite  with  them  in  peace  have 
joined  them  in  war. 

If  the  churches  have  rallied  to  their  re- 
spective nations  in  time  of  war,  and  have 
aided  and  abetted  one  another  in  keeping 
alive  its  fury,  it  is  also  undeniably  true  that 
everywhere,  in  every  country,  the  spirit  of 
their  faith  has  survived,  even  in  the  midst 
of  battle,  and  love  has  triumphed  over  hate 
in  spite  of  the  war  lords  and  their  decrees. 
Prisoners  of  war  have  felt,  though  often 
secretly,  the  pressure  of  the  sympathetic 
hand,  and  while  war  has  gone  unchecked, 
its  Mara  has  grown  less  bitter,  and  Elim's 
fountains  have  never  ceased  to  flow. 


198          Nationalizing  America 

In  this  the  Protestant  churches  of  the 
United  States  have  had  a  notable  share,  in 
the  work  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  in  the  gifts  of 
individual  churches  to  the  war-stricken  re- 
gions, and  in  the  collective  efforts  of  the 
Federation  of  Churches. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  never 
failed  at  such  a  crisis  in  its  work  of  mercy, 
and  the  Christian  ideals  of  self-denial  and 
self-sacrifice  have  again  been  maintained  by 
her  Brotherhoods  and  Sisterhoods  of  Mercy. 

Nations  therefore  have  nothing  to  fear 
from  Christian  churches  in  their  Imperialistic 
schemes  or  their  wars  for  revenge ;  "  but 
they  will  stir  the  bonfire  and  each  one  bring 
its  faggot "  and  urge  their  adherents  to  give 
that  which  is  Caesar's  unto  Caesar,  and  give 
him  also  that  which  is  God's.  The  time  may 
come  when  the  Church  will,  with  Cardinal 
Woolsey,  smite  her  breast  and  say  :  "  Had  I 
but  served  my  God  with  half  the  zeal  I 
served  the  King,  He  would  not  in  mine  age 
have  left  me  naked  to  mine  enemies." 

It  is  on  the  constructive  side  of  nation 
making  in  which  the  Church  has  played  an 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     199 

important  part  in  the  past,  and  in  which  it 
now  needs  to  take  a  larger  share  and  re- 
sponsibility. This  is  notably  true  in  our 
own  country  in  which  the  human  material  is 
so  varied  ;  in  which  so  much  human  energy 
is  consumed  in  materialistic  gain ;  in  which 
the  process  is  so  ruthless,  and  the  contact 
between  men  made  more  difficult  every  day 
by  the  growing  social  and  racial  differences. 

What  part  the  Roman  Catholic  churches 
are  playing  in  this  essential  unifying  process 
is  difficult  for  an  outsider  to  tell.  Its  unity 
ought  to  give  it  power  to  bridge  these 
chasms,  but  I  doubt  that  the  growing  amity 
between  Irish  and  German  Catholics  is  due 
to  their  common  love  of  the  Pope,  rather 
than  to  their  common  hate  of  England.  If 
anybody  hates  the  "  Dagoes  "  more  than  the 
Irish  do,  I  have  not  discovered  it,  and  it 
would  be  interesting  to  see  what  would  hap- 
pen South  or  North,  if  a  large  number  of  Ne- 
groes were  converted  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith  and  were  to  crowd  the  churches. 

That  Church  has  this  advantage ;  it  con- 
fesses the  sense  of  equality  only  before  the 


aoo          Nationalizing  America 

altar.  Outside  this  holy  circle  it  recognizes 
all  the  differences  of  caste  and  class,  and 
does  not  pretend  to  create  a  social  contact  of 
the  unlike. 

Neither  is  it  easy  to  say  what  share  this 
Church  has  in  the  Americanization  of  the 
immigrant.  There  is  no  doubt  that  a  large 
number  of  its  foreign  priests  are  trying  to 
retard  the  process ;  but  every  once  in  a 
while  one's  conclusions  upon  this  subject 
are  rudely  shaken  by  the  discovery  of  clergy 
in  harmony  with  all  our  ideals  upon  that 
subject,  and  eager  to  cooperate  in  their 
realization. 

We  have  no  adequate  knowledge  as  to  the 
effect  of  the  parochial  schools  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  common  national  ideals,  and  to 
offset  current  prejudices,  it  would  be  wisdom 
on  the  part  of  their  authorities  to  say  that  the 
schools  are  open  to  the  inspection  of  the 
state,  and  that  they  are  eager  to  do  their  part 
to  bring  about  the  desired  results,  through 
some  common,  national,  educational  program. 

The  very  fact  that  our  children  are  edu- 
cated under  different  systems  must  add  to 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     201 

the  growing  antagonism  between  Protestants 
and  Catholics,  and  is  in  itself  a  menace  to 
national  unity.  The  antipathy  between  these 
two  religious  bodies  is  growing  greater  every 
day,  and  in  some  quarters  is  taking  on 
menacing  proportions.  Neither  of  these 
bodies  has  a  monopoly  in  the  narrowness  of 
view,  the  bitterness  of  spirit,  and  the  truly 
un-Christian  methods  employed. 

In  Protestant  circles  as  well  as  among  social 
workers  who  have  no  religious  prejudices  or 
religious  beliefs,  one  finds  the  view  expressed 
that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  eager  to 
control  civic  affairs  and  that  it  uses  political 
parties  as  well  as  state  and  government 
officials  to  further  its  own  ends. 

To  offset  these  fears,  one  must  remember 
that  the  Roman  Catholic  mayor  of  the  city 
of  New  York  has  faced  the  issues  more 
squarely  than  any  of  his  Protestant  pred- 
ecessors, and  that  he  has  regarded  the 
well-being  of  the  wards  of  the  city  of  greater 
consequence  than  the  favor  of  the  clergy. 
That  he  has  suffered  from  the  religious  press 
of  his  Church,  that  its  dignitaries  have  joined 


202          Nationalizing  America 

in  the  chorus  of  condemnation,  and  that  no 
one  person  prominent  in  Roman  Catholic  cir- 
cles has  come  to  his  defense,  must  be  put  upon 
the  debit  side  of  the  ledger,  and  will  not  tend 
to  dissipate  the  fears  of  that  large  number  of 
American  citizens  which  regards  the  Catholic 
Church  as  a  menace  to  free  institutions. 

It  is  fair  to  say  that  state  officers  who  were 
Roman  Catholics  have  not  differed  from 
those  who  were  Protestants,  in  either  their 
efficiency  or  their  lack  of  it,  in  their  devotion 
to  the  well-being  of  the  state,  or  what  is  so 
frequently  the  case,  in  their  partiality  to  their 
party,  or  in  the  distribution  and  the  collection 
of  the  spoils  of  office. 

What  all  the  citizens  of  the  United  States 
may  fear  and  fight  is  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  State,  as  well  as  the  Protestant  State 
Church.  Either  would  be  a  menace  both  to 
the  state  and  to  the  Church. 

What  share  the  Protestant  churches  have 
had  in  the  development  of  our  national  life  is 
equally  difficult  to  appraise  here,  for  there  is 
as  much  danger  of  magnifying  as  of  mini- 
mizing it. 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     203 

Within  a  few  years,  the  tercentenary  of 
the  coming  of  the  Pilgrims  will  be  celebrated 
by  their  descendants,  and  by  the  people  of 
the  United  States  who  have  become  heirs  of 
the  gifts  they  brought  in  the  Mayflower. 
These  gifts  were  not  only  religious ;  they 
were  social  and  political.  They  and  the 
Puritans,  who  came  after  them  and  with 
whom  they  blended,  "created  Democracy," 
that  is,  "they  made  theoretical  democracy 
practical." 

No  doubt  as  the  history  of  these  three 
hundred  years  is  reviewed,  we  shall  be  re- 
minded again  and  again  of  the  harshness 
and  gloom  of  their  theology,  of  the  burning 
of  witches  and  hanging  of  Quakers.  The 
reading  of  it  strikes  terror  to  the  heart  even 
of  one  who,  like  myself,  can  account  for 
these  things,  although  he  cannot  justify 
them.  The  evil  they  have  done  in  the  name 
of  goodness  has  not  passed  away,  neither 
can  the  good  they  did  be  forgotten,  and  they 
do  stand  forth  as  agents  of  destiny  in  the 
shaping  of  the  nation. 

"  In  all  history,"  says  a  writer,  himself  not 


204          Nationalizing  America 

a  Puritan,  or  the  descendant  of  one,  "  there  is 
nothing  so  extraordinary  as  the  effect  of  that 
religious  persecution  which  led  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  Massachusetts,  and  laid  the  foun- 
dation of  the  great  American  Republic." 

Says  another:  "Puritanism  in  America, 
when  it  ceased  to  be  merely  a  religious  sym- 
bol, was  still  a  social  force,  and  is  to-day. 
There  would,  I  am  confident,  have  been  an 
America,  even  if  the  Puritans  had  not  been 
driven  out  of  England,  and  found  shelter 
when  and  how  they  did ;  but  it  would  not 
have  been  the  America  we  now  know." 

An  America,  materialistic,  but  not  to  the 
core ;  incurably  idealistic,  religious  in  its  per- 
petual self-criticism,  sordid,  but  struggling 
against  it ;  and  never  more  than  to-day,  when 
it  is  almost  engulfed  in  wealth  and  in  danger 
of  dying  of  fatty  degeneration  of  the  pocket- 
book.  Intolerant  still,  but  striving  to  be  tol- 
erant ;  narrow,  but  yearning  for  breadth  of 
sympathy ;  nationalistic  but  travailing  in 
pain  to  give  birth  to  something  greater  than 
itself. 

This  America  they  have  made  what  it  is, 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     205 

and  of  all  the  institutions  they  founded  and 
which  their  spirit  fructified,  the  colleges  and 
universities  are  their  most  enduring  me- 
morials. In  common  with  all  other  com- 
munions in  which  the  Christ  is  the  regnant 
personality,  they  have  wrought  at  this  task 
of  making  the  nation  Christian. 

The  devoted  home  missionary  and  the 
intrepid  circuit  rider  have  kept  the  pioneer 
from  being  brutalized  by  his  environment,  or 
discouraged  in  his  lonely  effort.  They  have 
brought  law  and  order  into  the  social  chaos, 
and  have  hastened  the  passing  of  the  frontier. 

If  the  churches  they  founded  have  not 
brought  the  Kingdom  of  God  nearer,  it  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  have  not  been  able 
to  withstand  the  pressure  of  the  materialistic 
spirit,  that  they  have  not  escaped  "  the  world, 
the  flesh,  and  the  devil,"  that  trinity  of  ene- 
mies so  easily  overcome  in  creed,  so  hard  to 
combat  in  conduct. 

In  those  Protestant  churches  where  the 
government  is  democratic,  where  the  serv- 
ices lack  the  elements  of  mystery,  and  are 
social  in  their  nature  and  effect,  church-mem- 


ao6          Nationalizing  America 

bership  demands  social  contact.  In  many 
cases  the  Church  has  escaped  from  this  pre- 
dicament by  gathering  in  only  the  socially 
desirable,  and  the  consequence  has  been  that 
it  has  become  merely  a  society  club. 

These  churches  have  exhibited  a  great  de- 
sire for  the  assimilation  and  Americanization 
of  the  immigrant,  but  most  of  them  have 
lacked  that  primitive  power  of  Christianity 
to  overcome  national  and  racial  prejudices, 
or  at  least  the  ability  to  diminish  the  friction 
caused  by  contact  with  the  unlike. 

Even  the  most  saintly  Christians  have  diffi- 
culties in  this  direction  ;  for  a  whiff  of  garlic 
might  create  a  panic  in  the  average  congre- 
gation and  put  to  flight  a  legion  of  paying 
members. 

It  has  been  much  easier  to  save  the  heathen 
abroad  than  at  home.  An  African  in  Zulu- 
land  is  not  a  "  Nigger,"  neither  is  a  China- 
man at  home  a  "  Chink,"  nor  an  Italian  in 
Italy  a  "  Dago,"  neither  are  the  Jews  in  Je- 
rusalem "  Sheenies."  They  become  these 
through  contact. 

The  halo  of  the  unconverted,  shines  more 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     207 

brightly  ten  thousand  miles  away,  than  that 
of  the  saint,  if  he  is  a  lowly  foreigner  and  sits 
in  the  same  pew  with  us.  The  barrier,  as  we 
know,  is  largely  social,  and  will  disappear 
when  the  immigrant  has  become  prosperous, 
and  is  able  to  take  his  religion  in  the  same 
luxurious  fashion  as  the  native-born  takes  his. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  in  notable 
instances  it  has  been  impossible  to  educate 
foreigners  and  native-born  together  for  the 
Christian  ministry.  The  common  bond  of 
Christian  love  and  a  great  purpose  are  not 
strong  enough  to  overcome  social  and  cul- 
tural differences.  It  is  fortunate  that  de- 
nominational rivalries  have  fallen  to  a  mini- 
mum. It  cannot  be  said,  however,  that  the 
churches  have  thus  far  been  able  to  forget 
their  differences  sufficiently  to  merge  their 
effort  in  so  great  a  purpose  as  to  bring  to 
the  stranger  within  their  gates  a  common  ap- 
peal, and  make  a  common  effort  in  shaping 
his  earthly  or  heavenly  destiny. 

In  many  instances  the  Americanization  of 
the  immigrant  has  been  merely  a  good  talk- 
ing point  to  swell  home  missionary  contribu- 


208          Nationalizing  America 

tions,  and  just  enough  effort  has  been  made 
in  that  direction  to  justify  the  appeal.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  power  to  attain  this  end 
lies  with  the  churches.  To  a  large  degree 
they  are  American,  their  history  runs  paral- 
lel with  the  history  of  this  country,  their  be- 
liefs and  practices  reflect  the  American  ideal, 
and  Christianity,  if  it  is  anything,  is  an  in- 
fluence which  makes  for  unity  and  democ- 
racy. Upon  those  churches  whose  historic 
background  is  in  the  Old  World,  which  have 
transplanted  here  the  language  and  customs 
of  their  respective  countries,  rests  a  heavy 
responsibility. 

It  is  not  easy  to  retain  their  differences 
without  an  appeal  to  their  members  to  be 
loyal  to  those  things  which  are  precious  to 
them,  and  without  which  these  churches  often 
have  no  existence.  Especially  in  our  troubled 
times,  there  will  be  an  accentuation  of  the 
national  and  spiritual  values  of  their  respect- 
ive countries,  and  a  new  hold  will  be  gained 
upon  those  who  had  merged  both  their  gifts 
and  their  needs  in  the  institutions  of  the  new 
world.  The  churches  may  gain  temporarily, 


The  Churches  and  the  Nation     209 

but  the  cause  of  the  nation  will  suffer  in  the 
end. 

The  Church,  which  exalts  the  Czar,  the 
Kaiser,  the  King  or  the  Pope  and  depreciates 
the  Republic,  will  not  only  be  untrue  to  its 
spiritual  mission ;  it  will  have  no  share  in 
furthering  the  stability  of  a  government  which 
has  proved  itself  best  adapted  to  the  free  ex- 
ercise of  religious  convictions. 

Nowhere  else  has  the  Church  had  such  a 
free  field  to  prove  its  worth,  nowhere  else  has 
it  been  so  unhampered  by  irksome  restric- 
tions, and  nowhere  else  has  it  so  well  deserved 
the  cooperation  and  aid  of  religious  people. 
It  is  not  a  perfect  state,  it  does  not  yet  ap- 
proach that  government  which  may  be  called 
Christian,  but  if  any  government  may  be 
made  Christian,  it  is  one  which  the  people  may 
make  what  they  desire  it  to  be,  and  which  in 
the  end,  no  matter  what  its  limitations,  re- 
flects what  the  people  are.  We  shall  be  a 
Christian  Nation  as  soon  as  the  churches  are 
Christian,  and  at  no  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world  was  there  as  much  need  for  both  as 
there  now  is. 


IX 

Nationality  and  the  Immigrant 

IT  is  one  of  the  minor  disasters  of  the  war 
that  those  of  us  who  tried  to  save  the 
world  by  talking  to  it  had  to  revise  our 
opinions  and  reconstruct  our  speeches.  Our 
written  material  is  so  dead  that  no  editor  is 
needed  to  kill  our  copy,  and  we  are  half 
ashamed  of  what  has  found  its  way  into  print. 
That  which  saves  our  vanity  from  being  in- 
curably wounded  is  that  but  few  authors  read 
their  own  books. 

Upon  no  subject  is  it  so  necessary  for  us  to 
"right  about  face"  as  upon  that  of  immigra- 
tion ;  although  with  it  as  with  all  war-riddled 
problems,  we  do  not  know  just  which  way  to 
turn. 

According  to  most  writers  the  immigration 
problem  began  when  the  great  movement  of 
population  from  Northern  Europe  ceased. 
They  deplored  the  passing  of  the  homoge- 


2IO 


Nationality  and  the  Immigrant  211 

neous  Teuton,  and  looked  with  dread  upon 
the  incoming  Slav,  Latin,  and  all  those  other 
lesser  peoples  born  south  of  the  line  they 
drew  through  Europe,  which  divided  the  bad 
immigrant  from  the  good  one. 

Prior  to  the  war,  a  certain  distinguished 
American,  who  may  well  glory  in  the  revival 
of  nationalism  which  he  launched,  with  a 
fervor  of  spirit  and  incisiveness  of  language 
unrivalled  even  by  Billy  Sunday,  declared 
himself  in  his  characteristic,  dogmatic  way 
upon  this  subject.  According  to  him  we 
could  assimilate,  or  had  assimilated  all  those 
kindred  peoples  who  climbed  with  us  the  same 
limb  of  the  ethnic  tree ;  but  we  could  never 
do  anything  with  those  who  lagged  in  their 
ascent.  They  were  separated  from  us  on  a 
certain  date  which  marked  a  geological 
period.  Coming  into  our  country  too  greatly 
handicapped  by  ethnic  differences,  no  climb- 
ing could  enable  them  ever  to  sit  comfortably 
with  us  upon  the  heights  which  we  have 
reached.  This  same,  strident  voice  was  up- 
lifted during  a  critical  period  in  our  national 
life,  to  warn  us  against  the  "  Hyphenated 


212          Nationalizing  America 

American  "  who,  like  a  snake,  warmed  him- 
self in  our  bosom,  then  turned  to  sting  us. 
Un-Americanized,  unassimilated,  he  is,  in 
spite  of  our  consanguinity,  a  foe  to  our  na- 
tional interests. 

After  all,  then,  it  is  not  race  or  language, — 
not  even  a  common  Teutonic  background, 
which  may  be  more  or  less  than  these, — but 
the  strength  or  weakness  of  the  national  feel- 
ing the  immigrant  brings  with  him,  which 
would  make  him  for  us  or  against  us,  when 
our  own  interests  are  at  stake. 

It  may  be  true  (and  I  dare  not  be  dogmatic 
on  this  point)  that  the  earlier  immigrant 
groups  became  Americanized,  because  at 
that  time  national  feeling  scarcely  existed, 
or  was  feeble.  Perhaps  because  of  our  hav- 
ing been  at  peace  with  Europe,  what  they 
brought  with  them  or  acquired  after  their 
coming,  was  never  severely  tested. 

After  all  it  was  easy  for  French  and  Ger- 
man and  Dutch  to  fight  with  us  against 
England,  which  if  not  their  foe  was  not  their 
friend.  The  Civil  War  was  no  actual  test 
of  their  loyalty  to  this  nation,  because  it  did 


Nationality  and  the  Immigrant  213 

not  involve  their  own.  Indeed  I  doubt  that 
the  matter  of  fighting  for  a  good  or  bad 
cause  is  necessarily  an  indication  of  loyalty 
to  that  cause.  Men  have  always  loved  to 
fight,  and  have  been  found  on  one  side  and 
then  on  the  other,  without  much  questioning 
as  to  who  or  what  was  right.  Nor  was  the 
Americanization  of  the  earlier  immigrant  as 
speedy  or  complete  as  we  believed  ;  for  there 
are  vast  numbers  of  the  older  type,  more 
alien  to  us  than  the  newer,  less  homogeneous 
stranger,  in  whom  we  expect  a  change  of 
heart  during  the  meager  five  years  which  we 
allow  for  the  process  of  nationalization. 

In  fact  every  immigrant  who  has  come 
here  since  the  year  1848,  and  the  date  is  not 
an  arbitrary  one,  is  still  "  hyphenated,"  and 
the  strength  of  the  hyphen  to  pull  in  either 
direction  depends  upon  four  factors. 

First,  upon  how  much  he  consciously 
shared  in  the  national  struggle  of  his  own 
people  before  he  came. 

Second,  to  what  degree  he  has  been  ex- 
posed to  the  same  national  propaganda  after 
reaching  this  country. 


214          Nationalizing  America 

Third,  what  were  his  religious  convictions, 
economic  status,  and  the  social  environment 
in  which,  as  a  consequence,  he  was  placed. 

Fourth,  and  this  is  frequently  a  decisive 
point,  whether  he  was  naturally  endowed 
with  the  qualities  which  stamp  a  man  an 
American,  no  matter  where  he  was  born. 

I  have  met  Englishmen,  Germans,  Italians, 
Montenegrins,  Jews  and  Russians  who  were 
foreordained  to  come  to  America,  and  were 
always  Americans  in  spirit. 

We  shall  never  have  laws  that  will  enable 
us  to  select  the  immigrant  who  has  this  inter- 
national feeling,  which  so  quickly  makes  him 
an  American  ;  nor  shall  we  be  able,  or  ought 
we  be  willing,  to  reject  those  who  are  patri- 
ots in  the  narrowest  and  deepest  sense. 

We  might  do  much  to  improve  the  eco- 
nomic status  of  the  alien,  to  enable  him  to 
live  so  that  we  can  tolerate  him  in  our  neigh- 
borhoods, and  not  crowd  him  into  the  Ghettos 
and  dreadful  Eastsides.  However,  with  the 
present  social  order,  no  immediate  remedy  is 
in  sight ;  so  he  must  struggle,  and  sink  or 
swim. 


Nationality  and  the  Immigrant  215 

The  matter  of  foreign,  national  propa- 
ganda, which  we  have  not  only  tolerated  but 
have  involuntarily  encouraged  by  neglecting 
to  make  the  immigrant  conscious  of  common 
community  and  national  interests,  is  a  matter 
of  serious  concern.  It  has  its  good  and  its 
bad  side. 

It  has  benefited  the  alien  by  saving  him 
from  utter  isolation,  and  lifted  him  above  that 
purely  materialistic  existence,  to  which  we 
condemned  him  in  our  industrial  centers. 

It  stimulated  him  as  no  other  force  has, 
not  even  his  religion,  to  attain  physical  and 
mental  self-respect. 

In  many  cases  it  has  taught  him  how  to 
read  and  write,  has  aided  him  in  the  acqui- 
sition of  further  knowledge,  and  has  trained 
him  in  his  duties  as  a  member  of  society. 

I  have  watched  these  men  coming  into 
their  lodges  after  they  had  put  off  the  grime 
of  a  week.  They  were  almost  unrecogniz- 
able, so  changed  were  they  by  their  national 
regalia.  Their  bent  bodies  straightened,  pre- 
siding at  their  important  posts  as  if  sitting  on 
a  throne,  they  felt  themselves  men,  and  not  the 


216          Nationalizing  America 

trundlers  of  wheelbarrows,  feeders  of  devour- 
ing machines,  factory  hands  called  merely  by 
a  number,  which  they  were  during  the  week. 

They  were  men  of  importance  to  their 
group,  honored  as  officials  or  treated  as 
brother  members.  I  must  confess,  however, 
to  a  feeling  of  resentment  when  I  saw  them 
drilling  with  arms ;  but  even  that  fostered 
national  and  social  values  which  we  were 
never  wise  enough  to  use,  or  which,  wrapped 
in  our  racial  and  social  pride,  we  could  not 
or  would  not  create. 

The  bad  side  of  this  propaganda  is  ob- 
vious. It  keeps  alive  racial  and  national 
antipathies,  and  makes  difficult  that  unity 
for  which  we  must  strive. 

It  keeps  the  newcomer  a  stranger  to  our 
own  national  interests,  and  demands  of  him 
such  loyalty  and  devotion  to  his  nation  or 
group  as  to  completely  enwrap  him. 

In  time  of  national  danger  the  solidarity 
thus  created  has  been  used  and  is  used  for 
a  purpose  inimical  to  our  national  interests. 

Such  propaganda  would  not  be  tolerated 
by  a  state  bent  upon  developing  a  supreme 


Nationality  and  the  Immigrant  217 

national  fealty,  which  it  considers  possible 
only  through  unity  of  thought  and  action ; 
yet  it  is  difficult  to  say  how  we  shall  control 
these  things,  because  freedom  of  assembly  is 
one  of  the  guaranteed  rights  of  the  constitu- 
tion. Then,  too,  Americans  will  be  loath  to 
decree  that  Russians  who  are  living  here 
shall  not  have  the  right  to  work  for  a  Free 
Russia ;  or  that  the  Bohemians  shall  not 
from  here  further  their  struggle  against  the 
Hapsburghs,  or  that  the  Armenians  should 
be  kept  from  making  known  to  us  the  na- 
tional martyrdom  which  they  have  suffered 
from  the  Turks. 

For  a  long  time,  then,  this  nationalistic 
propaganda  will  remain  a  part  of  our  na- 
tional mission,  and  its  handicaps  will  be 
the  price  we  pay  for  the  maintenance  of 
our  first  and  highest  national  ideal — free- 
dom. Any  society  which  uses  the  liberty 
thus  granted  to  the  disadvantage  of  this 
country,  which  develops  in  its  membership 
hatred  towards  our  people  or  institutions,  is 
committing  an  offense  which  must  be  called 
treason,  for  want  of  a  stronger  word. 


218          Nationalizing  America 

On  the  whole,  it  is  possible  to  utilize  the 
work  these  foreign,  national  societies  have 
done,  and  it  can  best  be  accomplished  if 
they  are  recognized  as  an  integral,  rather 
than  a  foreign  part  of  us  ;  as  a  substructure 
upon  which  a  wise  state  may  develop  its 
larger  and  more  unified  ideals. 

It  may  be  doubted  that  these  societies 
have  any  value  whatever  to  the  nation,  and 
it  may  seem  that  they  are  an  actual  menace. 
Yet  they  exist,  and  they  exist  legally.  While 
their  effect  upon  our  new  citizenship  has  not 
been  analyzed  or  even  questioned,  I  am  in- 
clined to  believe  that  under  present  condi- 
tions among  the  un-Americanized  immi- 
grants, and  with  our  attitude  towards  them, 
they  perform  a  valuable  function  for  their 
members.  They  may  at  least  be  an  object 
lesson  to  certain  classes  of  our  people. 

First,  to  that  numerous  class  of  Americans 
which  is  individualistic  to  the  point  of  self- 
ishness ;  which  has  never  recognized  its  debt 
to  its  community  or  nation ;  which  just  hap- 
pened to  be  American,  because  born  here, 
and  which  thinks  of  citizenship  merely  in 


Nationality  and  the  Immigrant    219 

terms  of  partisan  politics  and  privileges,  but 
not  of  duties.  To  such  Americans  it  would 
be  a  wholesome  lesson  to  know  that  these 
Hungarians  (in  whom  they  suspect  no  higher 
aspiration  than  to  get  drunk  on  Sunday) 
cling  tenaciously  to  one  another,  and  seek 
each  others'  good  ;  that  they  read  their  na- 
tional newspaper,  free  from  the  drivel  of 
society  news,  and  void  of  the  excitement 
of  hold-ups  and  pennant  races  ;  that  though 
far  away,  with  new  interests  claiming  them, 
they  are  still  loyal  to  their  native  country 
and  people. 

What  a  revelation  it  would  be  to  our  best 
citizens,  with  their  empty  clamor  for  "pre- 
paredness," to  find  a  group  of  Albanians 
from  a  tribal-torn,  ravished,  desolate,  almost 
obliterated  country,  planning  for  its  restora- 
tion and  independence.  Out  of  their  two 
dollars  a  day  wage,  they  are  contributing 
to  a  national  fund. 

It  certainly  would  be  an  invaluable  lesson 
in  patriotism  to  see  Italians,  who  have  at- 
tained prosperity  such  as  they  dreamed  of 
but  never  hoped  to  achieve,  crowding  into 


22O          Nationalizing  America 

their  national  hall,  eager  to  fight  for  their 
country  which  now  calls  for  their  lives, 
although  in  the  past  it  never  gave  them 
bread  enough. 

What  a  lesson  in  loyalty  to  native  country 
was  written  over  numerous  stores  on  Bleeker 
Street  in  New  York,  during  the  Balkan 
War :  "  I  have  gone  home  to  fight  for  my 
country.  I  will  be  back  after  the  war," 
signed  by  a  Greek  or  Bulgarian,  whose 
sense  of  duty  to  his  country  was  stronger 
than  his  desire  for  profit,  or  his  love  of 
life. 

That  large  class  of  Americans  which  looks 
with  contempt  upon  other  peoples,  and  thinks 
that  none  have  such  high  political  aspira- 
tions as  theirs,  might  be  humbled  in  their 
conceit  to  find  Slovaks  and  Finns,  Bohe- 
mians, Lithuanians  and  Poles,  trying  to 
realize  for  their  people  the  elusive  ideals  of 
liberty,  unity  and  democracy ;  while  we  are 
in  the  throes  of  achieving  preparedness, 
prosperity  and  protection. 

These  foreign  nationalistic  societies  might 
also  demonstrate  to  our  ardent  Americans 


Nationality  and  the  Immigrant    221 

the  emptiness  of  national  pretensions.  They 
show  the  fratricidal  struggle  waged  and 
transplanted  in  its  ugliest  forms  onto  this 
continent,  and  how  minor  differences  have 
been  magnified,  kept  alive  and  multiplied  by 
those  who  profit  by  war,  and  prosper  by 
keeping  related  peoples  apart. 

Removed  to  this  new  world,  separated 
from  the  glamour  of  courts  and  the  trappings 
of  war,  these  aliens  ought  to  be  able  to  see 
through  the  historic  lies  which  have  trailed 
along  the  upward  path  of  mankind,  holding 
it  back  and  confusing  the  vision  of  our 
prophetic  minds.  Here,  too,  they  might 
bring  before  the  court  of  common  sense 
their  claims  of  contending  culture,  and  see 
how  little  there  is  in  their  pretensions.  They 
would  find  how  well  we  can  use  all  of  them, 
and  how  easily  society  would  adjust  itself, 
should  one  or  the  other  perish  from  the  face 
of  the  earth. 

Perhaps  of  all  the  uses  to  which  they 
might  be  put,  this  would  be  the  best :  if  we 
could  show  all  these  different,  national 
groups  how  harmoniously  they  are  living 


222          Nationalizing  America 

together  here — working  in  the  same  facto- 
ries, and  their  children  attending  the  same 
schools.  Many  of  them  worship  in  the  same 
churches  and  are  governed  by  the  same 
laws.  We  should  help  them  to  realize  that 
here  they  maintain  liberty  without  limiting 
others  in  its  exercise,  and  secure  unity  in  all 
things  without  uniformity  in  everything. 
Those  of  us  who  have  caught  a  vision  of 
such  possibilities  must  be  the  teachers,  and 
there  is  an  inexhaustible  field  for  our  en- 
deavor. 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  at  just  what  point  this 
fusion  of  ideals  can  take  place,  just  where 
and  when  we  can  use  the  engendered  na- 
tionalism and  make  it  our  own,  and  whose 
ideals  are  most  compatible  with  ours.  This 
may  be  said :  they  are  all  akin  to  us  funda- 
mentally ;  they  are  all  alien  to  us  in  their 
substructure. 

We  have  a  deep,  vital  interest  in  all  these 
national  groups  which  struggle  for  independ- 
ence, and  which  claim  a  right  to  maintain 
their  national  existence. 

In  the  more  ramified  problems  of  language 


Nationality  and  the  Immigrant    223 

and  religion,  or  the  controlling  influence  of 
one  small  group  over  the  other,  we  have  no 
interest,  or  perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say, 
we  can  have  no  clear  discernment. 

We  can,  and  I  am  sure  I  do,  sympathize 
with  the  Slovaks  in  their  struggle  against  the 
Hungarian  government,  which  tries  to  im- 
pose an  Asiatic  tongue  upon  them  and  blot 
out  the  faint  memories  of  their  own  historic 
past.  Yet  when  one  knows  the  geographic 
position  of  Hungary  and  the  nearness  of  that 
great  Slavic  power  Russia,  the  attitude  of 
Hungary  looks  like  an  act  of  national  self- 
preservation,  and  may  be  justifiable. 

By  our  sympathies  we  encouraged  the 
Hungarians  in  their  struggle  against  Ger- 
manic Austria.  We  are  at  one  with  them  in 
upholding  their  independence,  and  share 
their  pride  in  their  more  liberal  government. 

We  cannot  understand  their  excessive 
chauvinism  which  balks  at  German  as  the 
language  of  command  in  a  common  army, 
and  which  pursues  emigrants  across  the  sea, 
to  retain  its  hold  upon  them  in  order  to 
reach  what  seem  to  us  trifling  ends. 


224          Nationalizing  America 

We  cannot  grasp  the  involved  problem  of 
the  Ruthenians  or  Ukranians,  as  they  prefer 
to  be  called,  divided  between  Russia,  Austria, 
and  Hungary,  we  can  sympathize  with  them 
in  their  struggle.  The  Polish  problem  which 
resembles  theirs,  although  of  larger  propor- 
tions, leaves  us  in  the  same  predicament. 

The  condition  of  the  Jews  in  Russia,  a 
country  which  demands  of  them  all  the  duties 
of  the  citizen,  but  grants  them  none  of  his 
rights,  seems  to  us  intolerable,  and  we  have 
tried  to  aid  them  by  carrying  their  persecu- 
tions before  Congress  and  terminating  our 
treaty  with  a  friendly  power.  We  also  find 
it  difficult  to  comprehend  the  social  and 
economic  problems  of  Russia  in  connection 
with  the  Jewish  question. 

The  Irish  situation,  which  has  been  so 
identified  with  our  own  latter  history  as  to 
become  almost  a  domestic  one,  is  of  the 
same  kind,  and  presents  similar  difficulties 
for  full  understanding. 

All  these  national  groups  must  remember 
that  there  is  one  question  which  is  supreme, 
and  that  is  the  relation  of  the  United  States 


Nationality  and  the  Immigrant    225 

to  the  rest  of  the  world.  I  do  not  say  that 
they  are  not  to  protest  against  great  national 
wrongs,  no  matter  which  nation  commits 
them  ;  that  they  are  not  to  aid  wherever  they 
can  in  righting  them ;  but  they  cannot  use 
any  collective  power  they  have  in  thwarting 
the  interests  of  this  country  without  violation 
of  the  hospitality  they  enjoy. 

The  Irish  and  German  societies,  which  have 
used  their  influence  to  hinder  the  signing  of 
the  treaty  of  peace  between  the  United  States 
and  England,  are  examples  of  what  I  mean, 
and  I  am  almost  sure  that  the  Jewish  socie- 
ties, which  were  active  in  having  the  treaties 
between  Russia  and  the  United  States  abro- 
gated, were  in  the  same  class. 

Far  greater  is  the  offense  of  those  bodies 
which  use  their  power  to  interfere  with  our 
national  elections ;  for  it  involves  the  use  of 
the  ballot  to  [further  the  interests  of  another 
government,  regardless  of  what  the  conse- 
quences may  be  to  this,  their  adopted 
country. 

In  these  perplexing  times,  "  America  First " 
is  a  safe  and  not  a  selfish  slogan,  though  it 


226          Nationalizing  America 

may  involve  our  approval  of  policies  not  in 
harmony  with  the  needs  of  our  own  particu- 
lar, native  group. 

We  cannot  be  citizens  of  two  countries. 
Loyalty  cannot  be  divided,  and  an  attitude 
of  that  kind  may  become  as  immoral  as  that 
of  the  man  who  maintains  two  households. 
"  A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand "  ;  nor  can  we  be  faithful  to  Kaiser 
or  Czar,  when  we  have  voluntarily  forsworn 
that  allegiance. 

It  is  no  light  task  this,  of  developing  and 
maintaining  national  ideals  in  the  midst  of 
so  many  currents  and  cross-currents,  and  the 
immigrant  who  has  accepted  the  asylum  of- 
fered by  this  country  must  learn  not  to  inter- 
fere with  our  national  interests.  He  owes 
that  to  this  country  as  its  guest,  and  when 
he  has  become  its  citizen,  no  such  admoni- 
tion ought  to  be  needed.  If  he  does  need  it, 
he  merely  proves  that  neither  he,  nor  we, 
who  are  his  teachers  by  example,  know  just 
what  American  citizenship  implies. 

To  many  an  American,  citizenship  is 
merely  a  chance  to  vote,  and  this  greatest  of 


Nationality  and  the  Immigrant    227 

all  privileges,  the  easiest  of  all  duties,  he  per- 
forms with  less  solicitude  than  when  shaving 
himself  every  morning,  or  looking  well  after 
the  creases  in  his  trousers.  Even  if  he  does 
not  give  or  sell  his  vote  to  further  the  cause 
of  some  foreign  government,  his  action  in 
many  cases  is  not  less  treasonable,  and  fre- 
quently brings  more  direful  consequences, 
than  would  such  a  terrible  betrayal. 

The  one  text  from  which  every  minister 
and  priest  ought  to  preach,  and  which  we 
all  ought  to  hear  and  heed,  is  that  which 
reads :  "  Judge  not  that  ye  be  not  judged," 
and  "  Why  beholdest  thou  the  mote  which  is 
in  thy  brother's  eye  and  considerest  not  the 
beam  which  is  in  thine  own  eye  ?  Or  how 
wilt  thou  say  to  thy  brother,  Let  me  cast  out 
the  mote  out  of  thine  eye ;  and  behold  a 
beam  is  in  thine  own  eye  ?  Thou  hypocrite, 
cast  out  first  the  beam  out  of  thine  own  eye  ; 
and  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  cast  out 
the  mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye." 

If  I  were  the  preacher,  I  would  say  that 
the  mote  is  the  uncertain,  divided,  confused 
deal  of  citizenship  among  our  foreign-born 


228          Nationalizing  America 

citizens.  The  beam  is  the  low  ideal  of  citi- 
zenship among  ourselves ;  and  if  I  were  a 
good  preacher,  and  my  soul  were  on  fire 
from  the  theme,  a  revival  of  citizenship 
would  follow  which  would  sweep  into  full 
allegiance  all  "  Hyphenated  Americans,"  and 
all  those  narrow,  materialistic  natives,  who 
haven't  even  a  hyphen  to  redeem  their  poor 
shrivelled  souls.  It  should  inspire  them  with 
the  love  of  country  and  the  high  conception 
of  duty  which  we  need  infinitely  more  just 
now  than  the  framing  of  new  laws,  or  the 
making  of  big  guns  or  armor-plate. 


A  Word  to  the  Unwise 

DURING  a  recent  epidemic  of  railroad 
accidents  on  a  system  which  is  sub- 
ject to  frequent  visits  from  this  mal- 
ady, it  was  found  that  the  passengers  in  the 
last  coaches  were  invariably  those  who  suf- 
fered the  most  serious  injuries.     A  friend  of 
a  friend  of  mine   proposed  that  a  law  be 
passed  prohibiting  rear  coaches.     (Is  it  neces- 
sary to  say  that  this  friend  of  a  friend  of  mine 
was  a  lady?) 

This  story  suggests  a  word  to  authors 
upon  the  disasters  likely  to  happen  to  their 
books  in  the  last  chapter,  the  one  of  all 
others  which  critics  usually  scan,  and  read- 
ers who  wish  to  be  well  informed,  read.  The 
Authors'  League  might  petition  Congress  to 
pass  a  law  prohibiting  concluding  chapters, 
and  thus  spare  the  public  the  necessity  of 
reading  them,  insure  writers  against  colli- 
sion with  critics,  and  save  the  critics  much 
229 


230          Nationalizing  America 

distasteful  labor.  Incidentally  we  are  re- 
minded of  the  passion  of  the  American  peo- 
ple for  making  laws,  and  the  wisdom  with 
which  many  of  them  are  framed. 

When  the  "  homicidal  fury  "  let  loose  in  the 
Balkan,  finally  involved  the  whole  of  Europe, 
and  our  press  reflected  the  varying  strength 
and  weakness  of  nations,  we  heard  many 
voices  urging  us  to  avoid  the  plight  of  poor 
"  bleeding  Belgium  "  and  gain  the  strength 
of  Germany  and  France.  Invariably  they 
suggested  laws,  and  it  would  be  interesting 
to  have  a  collection  of  those  which  finally 
found  their  way  to  Congress,  and  which 
were  to  be  remedies  for  our  spineless  na- 
tionalism, transforming  us  from  a  defenseless 
conglomerate  into  a  nation  which  the  world 
would  fear,  and  at  the  same  time  respect. 

Dozens  of  laws  have  been  advocated  as 
hyphen  preventives  or  eradicators,  and  by 
the  provision  of  some,  immigrants  must  de- 
clare their  intention  of  becoming  citizens 
upon  admission  to  this  country,  under  pen- 
alty of  being  deported  if  the  process  is  not 
completed  in  five  years. 


A  Word  to  the  Unwise          23 1 

They  are  to  be  educated,  Americanized 
and  assimilated  by  statutes,  and  that,  regard- 
less of  our  treaty  provisions  with  other  na- 
tions, the  curious  habit  of  human  nature  to 
resist  or  evade  compulsion,  and  the  well- 
known  fact  that  although  we  beat  the  world 
in  the  making  of  laws,  we  are  the  champion 
"slackers"  in  their  enforcement,  and  that 
our  respect  for  them  and  for  their  makers 
can  sink  no  lower.  I  do  not  presume  to  say 
that  no  further  laws  are  needed ;  but  I  do 
know  that  they  cannot  make  us  strong  where 
we  are  weak,  or  unite  us  in  those  things 
wherein  we  are  divided. 

The  French  national  spirit  was  not  created 
by  statute  or  paragraphs,  and  is  as  native  to 
the  country  as  its  style,  the  flavor  of  its 
cheeses,  or  the  bouquet  of  its  wines. 

Germany  as  we  know  it  to-day  was  made 
by  its  geographic  position  and  its  history, 
but  most  of  all  by  its  great  men.  Take 
Luther,  Frederick  the  Great,  Bismarck,  Will- 
iam the  Second  and  half  a  dozen  men  less 
known  to  most  people,  out  of  it,  and  leave 
all  their  laws  with  a  thousand  new  "  Streng 


232          Nationalizing  America 

Verbotens"  and  there  would  be  no  German 
Empire,  much  less  its  present  strength  and 
spirit. 

I  have  noticed  that  the  people  gathered 
here  in  the  United  States  are  curiously  like 
all  other  people,  in  that  they  are  dependent 
upon  their  leaders  for  guidance  and  growth. 
The  craving  for  a  Messiah  is  inborn,  and 
happy  are  those  nations  whose  mothers 
travail  in  holy  agony  to  give  Him  birth. 
Fortunate  indeed  are  we  in  our  Washing- 
ton and  Lincoln ;  the  one  the  Father  of  our 
Country,  whom,  like  children,  we  have  al- 
most outgrown ;  and  the  other,  our  great 
elder  brother  upon  whom  for  a  long  time  we 
all  must  lean. 

Should  I  attempt  to  put  a  third  name 
among  these,  our  immortals,  there  would  be 
serious  objections ;  for  in  a  democracy  no 
one  attains  that  happy  state  until  he  is  dead. 

The  one  man  whom  I  might  mention  is 
very  much  alive,  and  so  frequently  jeopard- 
izes his  possible  place  among  them  that  it 
would  scarcely  be  safe  now  to  suggest  putting 
him  there. 


A  Word  to  the  Unwise         233 

Time  will  make  us  forget  his  great  faults, 
and  bring  his  virtues  into  a  stronger  light. 
In  the  meantime  he  might  be  the  country's 
greatest  son,  whom  we  need  more  than  the 
mother-in-law  which  his  attitude  and  lan- 
guage at  times  suggest. 

I  trust  that  in  saying  this  I  am  not  commit- 
ting the  great  national  sin  which  I  am  about 
to  condemn :  the  sin  of  all  democracies,  that 
of  stoning  the  prophets  and  then  building 
them  memorials.  I  am  merely  expressing 
my  greatly  modified  appreciation  of  the 
services  rendered  the  country  by  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  who  is  not  unworthy  of  a  place 
beside  our  great  immortals. 

The  lack  of  leaders  in  our  national  life 
may  be  due  as  much  to  the  sectionalism 
and  narrow  partisanship,  which  still  exist 
among  us,  as  to  our  treatment  of  them 
when  they  do  appear,  and,  above  all  else, 
to  our  lack  of  the  national  passion  which 
can  beget  them. 

Indeed,  the  American  people  are  living  so 
much  in  the  past  and  for  the  present  that 
they  care  little  or  nothing  about  the  future, 


234         Nationalizing  America 

or  whether  they  leave  descendants  or  not. 
As  for  consecrating  their  children  from  the 
mother's  womb  to  the  martyrdom  of  leader- 
ship, that  is  practically  an  unknown  rite. 
Even  the  now  old-fashioned  hope  of  every 
American  boy  to  be  the  President  some  day 
had  in  it  a  prophetic  power,  and  it  is  a  pity 
that  it  is  no  more. 

Perhaps  the  passing  of  this  desire  can  be 
accounted  for  by  the  scant  honor  paid  to 
our  civil  servants,  the  cruel  and  not  always 
searching  criticism  they  have  to  face,  the 
suspicion  by  which  they  are  surrounded,  and 
the  abuse  heaped  upon  them,  all  of  which 
fall  most  heavily  upon  the  President  of  these 
United  States.  Criticism  is  necessary  and 
often  well  deserved  ;  but  we  forget  that  we 
have  in  this  national  household  millions  of 
strangers,  who  have  been  bred  to  feel  rever- 
ence for  those  who  represent  the  govern- 
ment ;  and  our  disrespect  and  bitter,  par- 
tisan quarrels  create  a  bad  atmosphere  in 
which  to  make  them  good  citizens. 

Somewhere  I  have  quoted  the  foreigner 
whom  I  interviewed  as  to  his  reasons  for 


A  Word  to  the  Unwise         235 

bringing  his  children  to  America.  This  was 
his  reply :  "  I  taka  my  children,  send  them 
school.  Little  school,  then  big  school,  then 
send  them  college,  and  when  they  get 

through  they  can  say  :  '  To mit  the 

President.'  " 

This  story  admits  of  two  possible  interpre- 
tations. First,  the  increase  of  self-respect  on 
the  part  of  the  immigrant,  and  second,  the 
alarming  growth  of  disrespect  for  those  in 
authority,  and  its  possible  consequences.  • 

While  great  men  are  those  born  of  the 
Spirit,  it  is  true  that  we  may  and  must 
consciously  train  for  the  duties  of  citizen- 
ship. In  this  connection  I  am  far  less  con- 
cerned with  the  immigrant  than  I  am  with 
the  native  born  and  their  children. 

I  am  not  greatly  alarmed  by  the  percent- 
age tables  of  naturalized  and  unnaturalized 
citizens,  nor  have  I  been  thrown  into  a  panic 
by  the  discovery  of  the  Hyphen.  The  im- 
migrant and  his  children  will  be  what  we 
make  of  them  ;  the  destiny  of  America  is  in 
our  hands  and  not  in  theirs. 

I  cannot  join  in  the  chorus  of  condemna- 


236          Nationalizing  America 

tion  of  America  and  Americans  in  their 
treatment  of  the  immigrant.  On  the  whole 
they  have  fared  better  here,  and  if  they 
have  not,  their  children  have.  If  they  have 
not  always  had  a  "  square  deal,"  if  they 
have  suffered  injustice,  it  was  not  in  our 
will,  but  in  our  way,  and  the  result  of  our  bad 
organization  rather  than  of  our  bad  temper. 

There  are  discriminatory  laws  against  the 
immigrant,  some  unjust,  most  of  them 
stupid,  or  both.  His  sufferings  are  largely 
due  to  our  social  order  and  to  the  unchecked 
commercialism  which  dominates  us.  "We 
eat  them  up  alive,"  a  certain  manufacturer 
said  to  me ;  and  cannibals  do  not  always 
make  exceptions  in  favor  of  the  home-grown 
article.  We  are  all  sufferers  together,  and 
together  we  shall  have  to  work  out  our  na- 
tional salvation.  To  do  this,  we  must  learn 
how  to  live  with  one  another,  how  to  share 
what  we  have  and  what  we  bring. 

I  have  frequently  been  charged  with  ideal- 
izing the  immigrant,  and  been  chided  for 
having  written  books  which  have  had  the 
disastrous  effect  of  creating  a  sentimental 


A  Word  to  the  Unwise          237 

interest  in  him.  I  plead  guilty  to  the  charge 
of  seeing  in  him  first  of  all  the  human  being, 
and  not  the  possible  competitor ;  a  brother, 
not  a  stranger  ;  the  like  and  not  the  unlike. 
I  cannot  be  charged  with  having  failed  to 
point  out  his  racial  defects,  for  I  have  too 
frequently  been  attacked  for  my  prejudices 
against  this  or  the  other  group ;  even 
against  that  from  which  I  sprang.  It  can- 
not be  said,  however,  that  I  do  not  know 
the  immigrant,  or  that  I  speak  from  a  mere 
superficial  knowledge. 

I  also  plead  guilty  to  having  idealized  my 
America. 

There  are  two  Americas.  One  in  which 
we  are  living,  and  the  other  that  which  we 
hope  to  make  it.  "Of  the  one  we  are  the 
guests,  of  the  other  we  are  the  builders." 
Builders  must  be  idealists,  men  who  are 
not  only  dissatisfied  with  the  present,  but 
have  great  plans  and  hopes  for  the  future. 
Frankly,  I  am  not  satisfied  by  what  we  are, 
though  I  know  the  value  of  what  we  have, 
and  I  am  passionately  eager  for  a  greater, 
stronger,  finer  America. 


238          Nationalizing  America 

I  repudiate  any  attempt  to  make  of  us 
merely  another  world  power,  another  armed 
camp,  another  huge,  man-eating,  national 
monster,  whether  of  the  German,  French  or 
English  type;  whether  our  imperialism  is 
to  spread  culture  or  cotton,  to  gather  war 
trophies  or  revenues. 

We  can,  we  must  create  a  new  type  of 
citizenship.  For  that  we  have  the  historic 
inheritance,  we  have  the  native  genius,  and 
we  have  this  contribution  of  all  the  race 
strains  of  the  world.  How  this  is  to  be 
brought  about  I  do  not  know.  If  I  should 
say  I  know,  it  would  be  due  to  the  fact  that 
I  do  not  realize  the  magnitude  of  the  task, 
or  how  slow  and  torturous  is  the  upward 
path  of  nations.  I  can  say,  however,  what  I 
have  done,  and  what  I  am  willing  to  do,  to 
make  myself  worthy  of  America,  and  help 
make  her  able  and  worthy  to  fulfill  her  world 
mission. 

I  love  America  above  every  other  country. 
I  am  thrilled  by  her  very  name.  She  is  more 
to  me  than  native  land,  though  I  cannot  for- 
get that.  But  here  I  was  really  born  into 


A  Word  to  the  Unwise          239 

that  which  is  not  merely  existence,  but  into 
that  which  is  life,  and  that  for  which  men 
have  given  their  lives.  My  love  for  her 
springs  from  the  larger  life  she  has  given  me. 

I  cherish  her  history  as  the  record  of  those 
who  have  lived  and  suffered  and  died  for 
great  ideals,  and  I  am  ready  to  die  for  those 
same  ideals,  if  by  dying  for  them  I  can  make 
their  realization  sure.  I  speak  her  language 
with  pride  because  it  is  the  language  of  this 
country,  and  because  it  is  a  channel  through 
which  her  spiritual  and  cultural  gifts  are  be- 
stowed upon  me. 

In  my  thought  and  action  I  have  united 
myself  with  men  of  all  colors  and  creeds, 
who  are  citizens  of  this  republic,  and  I  see 
nothing  in  their  differences  which  can  keep 
me  from  cooperating  with  them  in  every 
endeavor  which  is  for  the  common  weal. 

I  accept  without  complaint  all  the  limita- 
tions of  social  contact  which  my  own  race  or 
faith  may  bring  me ;  but  no  man  can  shut 
me  out  from  performing  my  duties  to  the 
nation.  Great  and  consuming  as  is  my  love 
for  my  country,  it  can  never  make  me  hate 


240          Nationalizing  America 

the  people  of  any  other  country ;  nor  am  I 
willing  to  sacrifice  them  to  prove  my  willing- 
ness to  sacrifice  myself. 

I  am  an  American,  and  because  I  am  an 
American  I  wish  to  cooperate  with  the  people 
of  every  other  country  for  the  good  of  hu- 
manity. I  do  not  regard  the  boundaries  of 
my  affections  fixed,  and  I  aspire  to  grow  in 
that  quality  in  which  alone  infinite  growth 
is  possible :  in  affection  for  mankind.  I  de- 
sire to  work  for  my  country's  material  well- 
being,  for  her  supreme  place  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  world,  and  I  hope  to  fit  myself 
to  further  her  every  laudable  ambition  in  that 
direction  by  doing  well  my  daily  task  as  part 
of  my  patriotic  duty. 

America,  my  country :  in  her  intercourse 
with  other  nations  may  she  always  be  right. 
My  country,  right  or  wrong ;  but  when  she 
is  wrong  I  am  as  ready  to  die  that  she  may 
not  commit  the  wrong,  as  I  am  ready  to  live 
and  work  that  she  may  be  right. 

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